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THOMAS CROSBY. 

From a photo taken in 1874 



Among the 
Aivko-me-nums 

Or Flathead Tribes of Indians 
of the Pacific Coast 



BY 

REV. THOMAS CROSBY 

Missionary to the Indians of British 
Columbia. 




TORONTO 

WILLIAM BRIGGS 

1907 




Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 
one thousand nine hundred and seven, by 
William Briggs, 
at the Department of Agriculture. 



^ 3 



INTRODUCTION. 



I have been requested to write a few words of 
introduction to this deeply interesting volume, and 
I gladly comply, although the task may seem to be 
quite superfluous. Thomas Crosby, or anything he 
may write, needs no introduction, at least in Meth- 
odist circles. For a generation his name has been 
a household word, and from time to time brief 
accounts of his heroic labors have found their way 
through the press into many homes. But these 
accounts were fragmentary and incomplete. They 
presented some striking incidents, but no connected 
story of the man and his work. Such a story 
Crosby alone could supply, and many will be glad 
that he has been induced to begin it; and the hope 
will be general that other volumes may follow, 
covering what is by far the most interesting period 
of his life. 

It is but seldom that men who lay the foundations 
of empire get credit for the achievement. Their 
work, for the most part, is done underground and 
out of sight. They are content to take up the work 
that lies nearest, leaving results with God, and are 
more concerned about doing their work faithfully 
than claiming credit for themselves. And yet all 
the while they are laying the only foundations on 



la 



in 



INTRODUCTION. 

which an enduring- civilization can rest, and are 
better entitled to the name and fame of empire- 
builders than some who have claimed the credit 
without doing the work. If it be true that he is a 
benefactor of his race who makes two blades of 
grass grow where one grew before, much more is 
he a benefactor whose spiritual husbandry trans- 
forms a savage into a citizen — a pagan into a saint. 
A conflict like that in which Thomas Crosby 
spent his life was no mere holiday parade. It was 
a grapple to the death with the powers of evil, in 
which no quarter was asked or given. He gave his 
life for the redemption of a people for whose 
souls no man cared, and fought — sometimes almost 
single-handed — a life-long battle against supersti- 
tion, immorality, and godlessness of every kind. 
No marvel, therefore, if he incurred the bitter 
enmity of the witch-doctor, the whiskey-trader, and 
the libertine, and by " lewd fellows of the baser 
sort " was the best-hated man in British Columbia. 
But he has his reward. By the converting grace 
of God some bitter foes were transformed into 
ardent friends; and as he searched society's rub- 
bish-heaps for lost jewels, here and there he found 
a pearl of great price that more than compensated 
for all his toil. Many will join in the prayer that 
years of useful service may still be his, and that his 
declining years may be brightened by further dis- 
plays of saving power among the Red Men of the 
Pacific Coast. 

A. SUTHERLAND. 
Toronto, February, 1907. 



CONTENTS. 



i. 

ii. 
in. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 



The Flatheads and the " Book of Heaven " 

The Call from Macedonia . 

Westward, Ho ! ... 

At Nanaimo— The School . 

Heathen Street vs. Christian Street 

Difficulties with the Language . 

A Slavery worse than Death 

Feuds and Bloodshed 

Houses, Clothing, Cruel Customs 

Courtship and Marriage 

Foods, Feasts and Follies . 

Native Worship and Superstitions 

Struggles with Whiskey, and the Ravages of 

Fire-water .... 
Some Perilous Canoe Trips 
Varied Experiences . 
How the Gospel came to Chilliwack 
More of the Chilliwack Revival— Camp-meetings 
The Bunch Grass Country 
Marvels of Grace 
Lay Agencies— Salvation in a Victoria Bar-room 
British Columbia—Its Interests and Resources 
The Missionary Progress of the Years— Home 

Again ..... 



PAGE 

9 

21 

30 

41 
48 

52 
60 

67 

79 
88 

99 
112 

126 
141 

159 
169 

183 

195 
206 

233 

237 

241 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Frontispiece 



Portrait of Author .... 
Flathead Woman and Child .... 

Early Native Types 

Indian Church and Mission House at Nanaimo 
Indian Houses, with Group of Heathen Natives 
" I could see two wild, savage-looking men," etc. 
"The great big fellow danced up and down," etc 
Two Flathead Centenarians .... 
" One day I slipped in and found the old fellow rattling 
over him" ..... 

Witch Doctor and his Wife— "Coal Tyee" — Crosby 
teaching Indian Chief .... 

"We were bailing out as hard as we could" 

First Protestant Church in the Chilliwack Valley 

Coqualeetza Indian Institute .... 

Group of Students, Coqualeetza Institute 

Amos Cushan — Sarah Shee-at-ston — David Sallosalton 
— Captain John Su-a-lis .... 

Skowkale £hurch — Skowkale Mission People 

The Transformed Bar room, Victoria 



PAGE 



18 

42 N 

48 

74 

78 

86 

122 

128 
146 
172 ' 
192 
198 

208 
232 
236 




FLATHEAD WOMAN AND CHILD 



(Showing method in use among these Indians for flattening the heads of the 
infant children.) 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FLATHEADS AND THE "BOOK 
OF HEAVENS 

"They may not want you, but they need you." 

" Far, far away, in heathen darkness dwelling, 
Millions of souls forever may be lost. 
Who, who will go, Salvation's story telling, 
Looking to Jesus, counting not the cost?" 

The An-ko-me-nums, as they call themselves, are 
a branch of the great Salish or Flathead family of 
Indians, whose territory is that part of the Pacific 
Coast now known as Northern Oregon, Washing- 
ton, and Southern British Columbia. 

The Flatheads derive the name from their cus- 
tom of compressing the skull in childhood until the 
whole front of the head is flattened and broadened.. 

They live along the great arteries of travel, the' 
Columbia River in the south, the Fraser River in 
the north, and their tributaries, as well as on the 
shores of those inland waters of the West known, 
as Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia. 

Unlike the great nations of the East and of the 

9 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

plains, who possess something of national unity, 
they are composed of a number of branches, speak- 
ing languages bearing scarcely any resemblance to 
each oth]er — the Chinooks, the Cayuses and the 
Sinahomish in the south; the Shuswaps and the 
Okanagans in the interior of British Columbia ; and 
the An-ko-me-nums, known under such names as 
the Cowichans — after tribes on Vancouver Island, 
which sorne believe to be the parent stock — and 
the Stawlo, which literally means the River 
Indians. 

These last inhabit the valley of the Fraser River, 
from Yale to its mouth, and the east coast of 
Vancouver Island, from Comox to Esquimault, and 
include the Nan-ni-moohs, Cowichans, Songees, 
Skwamish, Sumats, Chil-way-uks, and numerous 
other rival tribes, possessed of the same manners 
and customs, but speaking varying dialects of the 
same language, and, in earlier days, engaging in 
the fiercest conflicts with one another. 

The Coast Indians are spoken of, generally, as 
Siwashes, a term which the more intelligent resent, 
and which is taken from the word for " Indian " 
in the Chinook or trade jargon. 

•There is some doubt, however, as to the origin 

of the word " Siwash." By some it is thought to 

be a corruption of the French word " Sauvage " 

(barbarian), as applied by the Nor' westers to the 

Indians generally. But in all probability it is a 

corruption of the generic term " Salish," which is 

given by ethnologists to the whole family, and as 

such is improperly applied to the Northern tribes. 

10 



FLATHEADS AND THE BOOK OF HEAVEN 

The Indians of British Columbia. 

There are some six distinct races among the 
Indians of British Columbia. The Hydah-Kling-get, 
on Queen Charlotte Islands and the lower Alaskan 
coast; the Tsimpshean, in the region of the lower 
Skeena and Naas River; the Kwa-kualth, from 
Kitamaat to Cape Mudge on the mainland and 
north-east coast of Vancouver Island; the Salish, 
of which the An-ko-me-nums are a division, in the 
south; the Kootenai and the Dene or Tinne, in the 
interior. The At nation, which occupies the west 
coast of Vancouver Island, it would appear, is 
still another race, though some ethnologists identify 
them with the Kwa-kualths. 

The origin of these various people is much in 
doubt. The Tinne possibly came by way of the 
Aleutian Islands from Asia. The Northern Coast 
tribes, Hydahs and Tsimpsheans, may be related to 
the Filipinos and the Japanese. Some years ago, 
when the first Japanese fishermen came to the 
Skeena, the Indians immediately claimed them as 
their " tilikum " (friends). When the difference 
in language was pointed out, they replied, " That 
does not matter, the Indians speak different lan- 
guages. Just look at their hair and their eyes and 
the color of their skin, is it not the same as ours? 
They are surely of our race." The resemblance so 
noted is certainly remarkable. 

As for the Salish and Kwa-kualths, the similarity 
between certain of their words and those of the 
Polynesian Islanders has led some to give them an 
Oceanic origin. 11 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

The various sources from which they possibly 
sprang will sufficiently explain the difference in 
their languages. 

Early Traders. 

Very early in the last century the trading ships 
of various nations were visiting the coast and bar- 
tering their cargoes of firearms, rum and useless 
trinkets — beads, bits of iron and brass — for the 
valuable furs of the natives. 

The first depot on Vancouver Island was estab- 
lished at Nootka, on the West Coast, and, a little 
later, a second, on the mainland near the mouth 
of the Columbia. Thus early the Indians were 
debauched by the whiskey and vices of the white 
man, and from that time to the present have been 
wretched sufferers. 

The great fur companies, the North-west, the 
Hudson's Bay and the Astor, were soon in active 
competition for the trade of the Pacific slope. In 
1818 the first fort was built on the Columbia at the 
mouth of the Walla Walla, and about six years 
later, in 1824-5, Fort Vancouver was built, where 
the waters of the Willamette join the great 
Columbia. 

In 1804-6 the intrepid explorers, Clark and 

Lewis, made their then difficult and dangerous 

journey from the trading post at St. Louis across 

the mountains and down the Columbia River to 

the land of the Cayuse and Chinooks. Clark 

seems to have left a deep and favorable impres- 

12 



FLATHEADS AND THE BOOK OF HEAVEN 

sion upon the mind of the Indians, as will later be 
seen. 

Among these early traders were men of sterling 
character, who, while they might not be termed 
religious, had, nevertheless, a deep reverence for 
God and for His wondrous law, some little know- 
ledge of which they imparted to the native peoples 
with whom they were engaged in traffic. 

We cannot but wonder at the slowness of the 
Church in not seeing and seizing her opportunity. 
She should have been first on the ground, but was 
not. The trader preceded her. And finally it was 
the eager longing of the heathen themselves, awak- 
ened by the Spirit of God, which aroused the 
slumbering Church. 

In Search of the " Book of Heaven." 

In 1832 the Flatheads at the headwaters of the 
Columbia River met in council, not painted for 
war or armed for the chase, but with a look of 
earnestness on their faces. They were talking over 
a strange story which some wandering trappers 
had brought to their camps — the story of the white 
man's worship, and the Book that told of God and 
immortality, and the presence and power of the 
" Great Spirit." They had more than once held 
such a council, and they finally concluded that if 
there was such a treasure as the Book of Heaven 
they would try and find it. 

They selected one of the old " seams " (chiefs) and 

a strong-minded brave of full years, also two young 

13 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS. 

and daring men. These four were sent oft across 
the mountains in search of the news of the white 
man's God, or the book that would tell of His love. 

Leaving their western homes or " lalums," they 
turned their faces to the east, and for many a week 
they travelled mountain and plain in the search. 
They reached St. Louis, then a mere hamlet, known 
as the far frontier, a resort of hunters and trappers. 
One day these four strange Indians were walking 
down the street, looking everywhere as if for hid- 
den treasure. Finally they met Gen. Wm. Clark, 
whose name the two older had heard of years 
before, up in their far away western home, as he 
and others were making their way to the western 
sea. 

To him they made known the object of their 
search. They were kindly received and well treated, 
but neither General Clark nor anyone in that 
Roman Catholic town helped them to what their 
hearts longed for. They waited till they became 
weary; two of their number sickened and died, and 
now the remaining two prepared to go back to the 
people with a tale of disappointment. General 
Clark, knowing the Indians' love of ceremony, had 
a leave-taking in his town. One of the poor Indians, 
as they said good-by, made the following touching 
speech : 

" We came to you over a trail of many moons 
from the setting sun. You were the friend of our 
fathers who have all gone the long way. We came, 
with our eyes partly opened, for more light for our 
people who sit in darkness. We go back with our 

14 



FLATHEADS AND THE BOOK OF HEAVEN 

eyes closed. How can we go back blind to our 
blind people? We made our way to you with 
strong arms, through many enemies and strange 
lands, that we might carry back much to our 
people. We go back with empty and broken arms. 
The two fathers who came with us, the braves of 
many winters and wars, we leave here always by 
your great wigwams. They were tired in their jour- 
ney of many moons, and their moccasins were worn 
out. Our people sent us to get the white man's 
Book of Heaven. You took us where they worship 
the Great Spirit with candles, but the Book was 
not there. You showed us images of good spirits 
and pictures of the good land beyond, but the Book 
was not among them to tell us the way. You made 
our feet heavy with burdens and gifts, and our 
moccasins will grow old with carrying them, but 
the Book is not among them. We are going back 
the long, sad trail to our people. When we tell 
them, after one more snow, in the big council, that 
we did not bring the Book, no word will be spoken 
by our old men, nor by our young braves. One 
by one they will rise up and go out in silence. Our 
people will die in darkness and they will go on the 
long path to other hunting grounds. No white 
man will go with them, and no Book of Heaven 
to make the way plain. We have no more to say."* 
Only one lived to reach his people, and with a 
sad heart he told the story. Word of this strange 
visit got into the papers of the East, among others 
into the New York Christian Advocate. Soon the 

* Dr. Hinds' Life of Jason Lee. 

15 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

whole American church was aroused, and with 
such men as Nathan Bangs and Dr. Wilbur Fisk 
leading- the way, it was not long before the Board 
of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church had 
the money and were ready to establish " A mission 
among the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains." 

When the question was asked, ' Who will go 
for us?" Dr. Fisk said, "I know but one man, 
Jason Lee." Mr. Lee was a Canadian, born in 
Stanstead, Que. He was converted at twenty-three 
years of age. A splendid man, six feet three 
inches in height, and in every particular the type 
of man needed for this new enterprise. 

In July, 1833, he was chosen leader of this great 
missionary adventure; and in the spring of the 
following year he, with his brother Daniel and two 
laymen, " mounted their horses and followed the 
Oregon trail." 

On September 17th, 1834, Lee and his party 
reached Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, 
and at once began to do all the many kinds of work 
which men must do in starting a mission among a 
wild, savage people. 

Lee and his associates were the first missionaries 
to the Pacific Coast, the first to the great Salish 
family of Indians; others followed.* 

Lee and his co-laborers planted their mission in 
the beautiful Willamette Valley and from the first 
had wonderful success. A boarding school was 

* Some years later two Roman Catholic priests, one of 
whom was Father Demers, found their way to the Columbia 
River, and still later Demers journeyed into the Okanagan 
Valley, and commenced work among the Shuswaps. 

16 



FLATHEADS AND THE BOOK OF HEAVEN 

established for the benefit of the Indian children, 
on the site of which now stands the Willamette 
University. 

Jason Lee was a preacher of marvellous power, 
and was the means, in God's hands, of the conver- 
sion of scores, both among whites and Indians. 
He preached the word at Fort Vancouver, and 
nineteen were baptized, one being Lady McLaugh- 
lin. Dr. John McLaughlin, the Chief Factor of 
the Hudson's Bay Company at this point, paid a 
fine tribute to his work when he said to Mr. Lee: 
" Before you came into the country we could not 
send a boat past the Dalles without an armed 
guard of sixty men. Now we go up singly, and no 
one is robbed." 

At a great camp-meeting, held in October, 1841, 
twelve hundred Indians attended and about five 
hundred were converted. 

It is a remarkable fact that between the years 
1839-41 a great spiritual awakening, which mar- 
vellously affected even heathen tribes, spread across 
the whole continent. 

Commencing with the great revival under Jason 
Lee among the Chinooks of the Columbia, we may 
follow the route pursued by the Hudson's Bay 
Company's men, up the Columbia and through the 
Okanagan Valley and on to the upper waters of 
the Fraser River, and then across the mountains 
through the land of the Crees to Hudson's Bay. 

In 1839, in the Okanagan Valley, where Father 

Demers was laboring among the Shuswaps, a great 

many natives turned from their heathenism and 

17 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

united with the Roman Catholic Church, and a 
strong mission was established. Farther on among 
the Crees, at Norway House and other points, a 
blessed work of grace was begun about the same 
time under the leadership of James Evans, Mason, 
and Rundle, with their young native associates, 
Henry B. Steinhauer and Peter Jacobs. 

As this spiritual influence spread — and it did 
spread — from nation to nation and from tribe to 
tribe, even those far removed from direct contact 
with the Truth seemed to be affected by it. These 
remarkable revivals were manifestly the result of 
the heroic work of Jason Lee and his associates. 
Where missionaries were sent to direct and lead 
the poor people, great and good results followed, 
for hundreds were savingly converted to God. But 
in other cases, where the natives were left to them- 
selves, the old (Shaman) conjurers made use of it 
to their own advantage. The people would fast and 
pray and dance for weeks — not their old heathen 
dances; they danced and prayed to the Sun god, 
or the stars, or the storm, for help and deliverance. 
This went on for a long time amidst great excite- 
ment. It was the groping of the human heart after 
God, " if haply they might find him." 

At the time of the great revival on the North 
Coast, in 1875, when the people became so aroused 
that they did not eat or sleep for days, the old men 
would say, " Oh, I saw this when I was a boy many 
years ago. A man came down the Skeena and 
spoke to the people, and they began to cry and pray, 
and this is the same. Long before this, a man came 

18 




EARLY NATIVE TYPES. 



FLATHEADS AND THE BOOK OF HEAVEN 

down from Alaska and told the people that the 
Ta-kus had travelled far away, for a month or more, 
in the mountains, and they had met with people who 
prayed to the Good Spirit. When they took their 
food they would read from a strange book, and 
when the people heard this they got much excited." 

It is possible that these Indians to whom the old 
men referred had travelled on the Peace or Mac- 
kenzie River, and had come across some of James 
Evans' converts, who could read in the Cree syllabic 
characters. 

There is no doubt that a great revival spread 
across the continent at about the time before men- 
tioned, filling the minds of the natives with expecta- 
tion ; and had the home Church used men and means 
at that day thousands and thousands of poor people 
might have been saved who went down in darkness. 

The incident, before mentioned, of the early 

planting of the Gospel among the Flathead people 

in Oregon, though somewhat removed from that 

section of this great nation with which we will have 

more to do, makes it clear that when God wants a 

man to do a special work for Him it does not take 

long to find him. It also shows that God by His 

Spirit will sometimes arouse a tribe or nation, so 

that they are ready for the Gospel light before the 

Church is prepared to carry the blessed truth. It 

does look at times as if His Kingdom were advanced 

through means all His own; and yet when the 

Macedonian cry, " Come over and help us," is 

raised, the Church should be ready to enter every 

field. 

19 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

If the Church were only awake to her privilege, 
and the responsibility which God has thrown upon 
her by the wealth He has placed in her hands, and, 
as a faithful steward, would return a tithe of what 
He has given for the spread of His Kingdom, we 
should soon have enough to carry the Gospel to 
every creature. 



20 



CHAPTER II. 
THE CALL FROM MACEDONIA. 

" I will send a Prophet to you, 
A Deliverer of the Nations — 
Who shall guide you and shall teach you, 
Who shall toil and suffer with you. 
If you listen to his counsels, 
You will multiply and prosper ; 
If his warnings pass unheeded, 
You will fade away and perish!" 

Longfellow's " Hiawatha" 

On the Columbia River, and farther north, on 
the shores of Puget Sound and the lower part of 
Vancouver Island, where the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany had established one of their most important 
posts — Fort Victoria or Camosun — small settle- 
ments gradually sprang up. But these were of little 
consequence until, in the year 1858, the discovery 
of gold on the bars of the Fraser, and later in 
Cariboo, drew attention to British Columbia and 
led to a wild rush from all parts of the world to the 
new " diggings." 

Almost immediately the Methodist Church 

embraced the opportunity, and sent out the first 

band of missionaries to the Pacific Coast, in the 

persons of Revs. Ephraim Evans, D.D., Edward 

White, Ebenezer Robson and Arthur Browning. 

These brethren were speedily at work, at Victoria 

and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, and at New 

Westminster and Hope on the Fraser River. 

21 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

While the hearts of these faithful missionaries 
were much engaged with the needs of the white 
inhabitants, their souls were stirred with the scenes 
of degradation and misery constantly presented to 
them by the wild native population, and their live- 
liest sympathies were aroused with a desire to help 
them. Brother Robson, especially, endeavored, as 
the circumstances of his own work permitted, to 
reach the Indians, both at Hope and Nanaimo. But 
the pressure of the ever-widening field among the 
whites made it impossible to do a great deal, and 
led him, with the others, to pray and plead that 
someone might be raised up whose mission would 
be the salvation of the Indians. 

In 1859, Rev. Dr. Evans, in the Missionary 
Notices for the year, wrote : " The scenes which 
meet our eye daily might well paralyze the hopes 
of any mere philanthropist, unacquainted with the 
constitution and past triumphs of the Mediatorial 
economy. The degradation of these poor savages 
must be seen to be at all understood. Then there is 
a large amount of prejudice and contempt arrayed 
against them. The collisions occurring between 
them and the miners, and the difficulties likely to 
arise about the alienation of their lands and the 
settlement of the colonies, present additional 
obstacles. Nothing less than the exertion of the 
Divine energy, promised to the Church in her evan- 
gelistic struggles, can bring about the desired civili- 
zation of these wretched fellow-men. Great will 
be the immortal honor, and glorious the reward, 

of the man who shall first throw himself effectually 

22 



THE CALL FROM MACEDONIA 

into this vast and long-deferred Christian enter- 
prise. Oh! that while I write the blessed Spirit 
may influence some heart with the requisite zeal and 
tenderness and self-denial, and thrust its possessor 
into the field of conflict and conquest before thou- 
sands more shall pass away unreached by the 
remedy so richly provided." 

Rev. A. Browning wrote, February, 1859: "I 
was a witness yesterday to the torture and death 
dance of the Indians over a captive. How sad it 
made me feel. I was under the protection of a 
gentleman well known to them, or I should hardly 
have felt safe. Oh! sir, I hope you and the dear 
friends at home will do something for these poor 
souls. Our hands are full, and will be, in laboring 
for our own race. Will not God raise up some 
young men especially for this work?" 

In 1 86 1, at the close of a very interesting descrip- 
tion of the effort he was making to reach the 
Indians, Rev. E. Robson said : " They all seem ripe 
for the Gospel. I have often witnessed scenes of 
thrilling interest among them — crowds of almost 
breathless listeners, falling tears, shouts of glad- 
ness, entreaties to come again, shaking hands with 
hundreds — but I cannot enter into all the details. 
What is wanted is earnest, self-denying, heaven- 
baptized men and women to devote themselves to 
this work, and a great and glorious harvest will be 
gathered." 

The same year, Rev. Edward White wrote sev- 
eral letters to the Christian Guardian, urging the 
importance of Christian young men coming out to 

23 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

the West to labor for the salvation of souls, class- 
leaders, local preachers and other workers, who 
would avail themselves of the opportunity afforded 
by the needs of the native peoples, and by the thou- 
sands who were pressing into the country in search 
of gold. 

These letters left a very deep impression upon my 
mind, but newly awakened by the Spirit of God to 
a sense of my privilege and responsibility, and 
created a deep longing to be used of God in a special 
manner for His glory. 

Some five years before this time, in the year 1856, 
I had come from England with my parents, and had 
settled near Woodstock, Upper Canada. 

Very early in life in the old town of Pickering, 
Yorkshire — where I was born in 1840 — I was the 
subject of deep religious impressions. But it was 
not until some time later that I was savingly con- 
verted to God. 

About the time of my leaving school, a very pious 
young man, by the name of George Piercy, belong- 
ing to my native town, desired to go as a missionary 
to China. His friends gave him no encouragement. 
But, overcoming all difficulties, he finally did go. 
I shall never forget the effect it had upon my heart. 
I admired his piety and zeal, even though I had not 
as yet made definite decision for Christ, and 
thought that if he could leave a comfortable home 
and influential friends there must be an inspiring 
motive. Later on, when the call came to my own 
heart, I understood what the inspiring motive was. 

There were two or three circumstances which 

24 



THE CALL FROM MACEDONIA 

were strangely used by the Spirit of God leading up 
to my conversion. 

When crossing the Atlantic Ocean we encoun- 
tered terrible storms and were in great danger of 
shipwreck among the icebergs. The goodness and 
mercy of God in preserving us and bringing the 
ship safely to land moved me to gratitude and 
thanksgiving. Later on I suffered from sunstroke, 
which resulted in a long illness, and while recover- 
ing I had leisure for more serious thoughts concern- 
ing the future. Some time after this, while wrest- 
ling with some companions, I was thrown violently 
to the floor, breaking my leg. The month in bed 
which followed the accident gave me another season 
for reflection, and led me to resolve to live a Chris- 
tian life. But, like many a sick-bed resolution, this 
was only made to be broken. During the autumn a 
camp-meeting was held near Woodstock, and 
though at first I made light of it all, I attended, and 
my conscience was still further aroused. 

The Methodist church in the town had just 
passed through a most blessed season of revival. 
Some of the young men had united in a praying 
band, and they invited me to go with them to their 
meetings. Such a spirit of trifling worldliness and 
carelessness had taken possession of me that I 
would rather have kept out of their way. But I 
was so struck by their earnestness and devotion that 
I consented to go. 

On the way up the street, while others were dis- 
cussing the results of the elections which had just 
taken place, the leader, and one of the most devout 

25 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

among them, Mr. A. Peers,* breaking in upon the 
conversation, said : " Here we are, fellow-travellers 
to eternity." "Eternity! Eternity!" I thought, 
" I am not prepared for eternity." The words 
haunted me like a refrain. Conscience repeated 
them in my ears. The meeting from beginning to 
end seemed especially for my benefit. The prayers, 
the testimonies, the songs were all the voice of God 
to my heart. 

Two weeks of terrible struggle followed this 
awakening. I often spent most of the night in 
prayer, beseeching God to have mercy upon me. At 
last, one evening, while on my knees, the answer 
came, and I was enabled to believe that God, for 
Christ's sake, had pardoned all my sins. 

A flood of joy filled my soul. My happiness was 
so great I felt constrained to give it out to others. 
A burning desire to be useful and helpful to others 
took possession of me. I immediately identified 
myself with the church and the Sunday School, 
joined the Tract Society, and with the praying band 
assisted in cottage prayer-meetings and visited the 
sick and the prisoners in the jail. Later on I was 
placed on the plan as a local preacher, and in con- 



* Alex. Peers, a devoted young classmate of the author, 
in Woodstock, Ont, who spent some time in Victoria Col- 
lege with a view to the ministry, in 1863 made his way to 
British Columbia, and took up land at Chilliwack. He was 
married to Miss Wells, sister of Mr. A. C. Wells, and after 
spending some time in the mission school at Nanaimo, finally 
settled in New Westminster, where he was very useful as 
a local preacher and class-leader, and secured the respect 
and esteem of all who knew him. Here the author again 
met him. 

26 



THE CALL FROM MACEDONIA 

nection with our services had the joy of seeing 
souls saved. 

I now felt more than ever that every moment 
must be improved in storing my mind with useful 
knowledge. I purchased additional books, mostly 
of a devotional character, and spent my evenings, 
until late into the night, in study. 

I never failed to avail myself of the privileges 
offered by any services of a special character, and 
while in attendance at a notable camp-meeting, held 
near Ingersoll, Ontario, at which the Rev. Wm. 
Taylor (then known as " California " Taylor) 
preached a wonderful sermon on sanctification, my 
heart was set on fire of love, and a stronger desire 
than ever to glorify God took possession of my soul. 

About this time my attention was drawn to the 
fervent appeals of the pioneer missionaries to Brit- 
ish Columbia, published in the Christian Guardian, 
and previously referred to. Again the flame of 
missionary zeal, which had been first lighted in my 
boyhood days by the influence of the saintly George 
Piercy, began to burn with renewed intensity. 

One day a friend handed me a copy of the paper 
with the letter from Bro. White in it, and said: 
" Crosby, you ought to go there." I took the paper 
into my room and read it on my knees, and there 
and then promised God if the way should open and 
the money should be forthcoming I would go. But 
where the money was to come from I did not know. 

Presently some of my friends noticed that some- 
thing was troubling me, and asked me what was the 
matter. I hesitated a little, and then told them I felt 

27 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

I ought to obey the call in my heart to go and 
preach the Gospel to the heathen of British Colum- 
bia, but I had not the money. The reply was : " We 
will lend you enough to go, and if you are never 
able to pay it back it will be all right anyway." 
This was a very serious moment, for I did not 
expect the answer to come so soon. The thought of 
what it meant to leave home and friends and go to 
a land of which little was known, suddenly pre- 
sented itself to me. I excused myself from my 
friends and went away to my room, and there 
pleaded with God to help me to do what He had 
now clearly called me to do. When my decision 
was made to obey God at whatever cost, the way 
seemed all bright and clear. 

Now, however, a new difficulty presented itself. 
I must get the consent of my mother. 

I rode out one night to the farm. My father met 
me, fearing ill tidings, and as we stood by the 
house I told him how the Lord had called me and 
that my way was open, but I felt I would like his 
consent and my mother's. The window was open 
and mother had overheard, and when we went in I 
found her in tears. Sobbing, she said I must not 
go, she could not spare me. Who can tell the depth 
of a mother's love? Though she had fourteen chil- 
dren she felt she could not spare one. I told her 
how the call had come and the way had been 
opened, and that I felt it my duty to go, and 
further that I feared if I disobeyed the voice of God 
I would lose my soul. Then, resting her hand upon 
my shoulder, the tears streaming down her cheeks, 

28 



THE CALL FROM MACEDONIA 

she said, " If that is so, then go! my boy, go! and 
God bless you." 

Many a time in after years when discouragements 
and difficulties beset me, my mother's words came 
to me as a benediction. Often when on stormy seas, 
the winds howling, the waves sweeping over us, and 
when to all human appearance it was impossible to 
reach shore, I would seem to hear my mother's loved 
voice and her " God bless you." 

When, night after night in my lonely cabin or 
camped on the beach, studying a strange language 
and perplexing myself as to how to get my tongue 
around the difficult words or sounds, the farewell 
words of my mother came again to comfort me. 

When standing all night long between savage 
parties who were clubbing and butchering one 
another, when I did not know but any moment I 
should be knocked down by some enraged warrior 
with his club, the remembrance of mother's benedic- 
tion proved an encouragement and an inspiration. 

And now came hasty preparations for departure, 
which were finally completed. The day at last 
arrived to bid farewell to Sunday School and class- 
mates and friends. One by one they filed past the 
door, on that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday, and 
grasping my hand they lovingly gave me their 
heart-felt " God-speed." The sweet-faced, tear- 
bedewed eyes of my little scholars ever remain a 
precious memory. 



29 



CHAPTER III. 

WESTWARD, HO! 

" I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, 
Over mountain, or plain or sea ; 
I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord; 
I'll be what you want me to be." 

— M. Brown. 

The only route to British Columbia then trav- 
elled, except the terrible overland journey, attempt- 
ing to make which so many perished, was that via 
New York, by sea to the Isthmus of Panama, 
thence to San Francisco, and on to Victoria. 

After bidding adieu to home, friends and 
acquaintances, I left Woodstock on February 25th, 
1862. The journey in some respects was a sad one. 
It was at the time of the American Civil War, and 
at every station, after crossing the Niagara River, 
hundreds of men came on board going to '" the 
front," leaving behind on the platform their 
mothers, sisters, sweethearts and wives, many never 
to meet again. These scenes revived in my own 
heart the pain of my recent parting with loved ones. 

That winter was a terrible one, marked by many 
heavy snowfalls. In New York State the train 
passed between high banks of heaped up snow. 

From New York we took passage on board the 

old S.S. Champion. She was crowded with five 

hundred men, most of whom were bound for the 

30 



WESTWARD, HO! 

Fraser River or Cariboo gold mines, and some of 
them the roughest class we ever met, armed with 
bowie knives and six-shooters. The language used 
by many of these men was so vile that I could not 
sleep below, and to escape such offensive atmosphere 
I took my blankets and went on deck. We had a 
very rough passage, and it was terribly cold, so I 
chose a spot close to the smokestack, and rolling 
myself up, lay down to rest. One night, during a 
great storm, the waves swept over the deck, drench- 
ing me thoroughly, and the officer of the watch 
came along and roused me with the words, "* My 
boy, if you don't get out of this you will be washed 
overboard." I picked up my dripping blankets, 
shook myself, and sought a more sheltered spot. 

The food supply for the passengers was not all 
that was needed — I got one potato in the trip. For- 
tunately my friends had provided me with a well- 
filled lunch-basket, which afforded me good service. 
The hungry men at times were rough and selfish. 
As the stewards would pass the food on to the table 
these hoggish men would grab it off the plates with 
their hands, so that if any one happened to be a little 
more modest he could not get anything. On one 
occasion a tall, good-natured Irishman thought he 
had struck it when he seized a long potato, but as 
he was drawing it to himself two other fellows 
made a grab, one at each end, and poor Pat was left 
with just the middle. One day the men stood by the 
swinging tables and swept the whole of the food off 
into the sea. Then, rushing to the captain, they 

declared that if he did not give them something 

31 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

better than " that dead horse " they would use their 
six-shooters. 

We were delighted to reach the Isthmus, and 
crossed over by moonlight on the narrow-gauge 
railway. It was pleasant to have a night crossing, 
for it was very hot weather, and the temperature in 
the middle of the day was almost unbearable. 

We saw the picturesque thatched huts of the 
natives here and there along the way, and called to 
mind the stories of the terrible mortality among 
these people while the little railroad was being built. 
My heart was touched by the sight of so many of 
these poor people in their apparent heathen sim- 
plicity, and I wondered if they had a missionary 
among them. 

At Panama we embarked on the fine double- 
decked passenger steamer Golden Age. At this 
point crowds joined us who had come by ships from 
England, and we were told we had fifteen hundred 
aboard. Our fine-looking ship was evidently not 
built to stand much stormy weather, but they 
pushed along up the coast of Mexico, meeting no 
difficulties, and presently we put into the harbor of 
Acapulco to coal. 

As the ship lay at anchor crowds of natives sur- 
rounded the vessel with their little canoes. The 
passengers threw five and ten-cent pieces into the 
sea, and the natives, heedless of the sharks that were 
swimming about, would jump out of the canoes and 
dive like fish for the money, bringing the pieces up 
in their teeth, shaking their heads and still beckon- 
ing for more, as they were ready for another dive. 

32 



WESTWARD, HO! 

One of the brethren who followed me tells the 
story that while his ship was coaling in this sam ^ 
harbor the sharks were so numerous that the passen- 
gers became alarmed for the safety of the little 
chaps, who as usual were diving for the money. 
Rushing to the side of the vessel, in great excite- 
ment, some of them cried out : 

" My ! my ! That shark is going to have that 

fellow." 

" Naw," drawled a gruff old tar, " he won't touch 

him." 

" Why not? Look! Look! He's just going to 

catch him now." 

" Naw," said the sailor, looking on without con- 
cern. " He stinks too much of tobacco. He'll never 
touch him." 

Soon we sighted the Golden Gate, and latex 
entered it in our ship the Golden Age. One could 
not but think there was much that was golden in 
those days of gold hunting, and yet many a poor 
fellow found out to his own sorrow that " it is not 
all gold that glitters." 

Thousands of men filled the streets of 'Frisco, 
nearly all bound for the Fraser River or Cariboo, as 
British Columbia was called in those days. 

The steamboats, some of them not very sea- 
worthy, were all overcrowded, bound north. A 
short time before the old steamer Republic, with 
eight hundred passengers, and the old Sierra 
Nevada, with nine hundred, had gone " up." And 
now another old coffin, the Brother Jonathan, which 
had passed the Customs to carry only two hundred 

S3 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

and fifty, took on eleven hundred men and was still 
selling tickets. 

Some of our acquaintances who went north on 
board of her state that " they were stowed away like 
pigs, two in a bunk," and they did not dare to leave 
their bunks for fear they would lose them. They 
were eight days on the trip, and hundreds of them 
never saw daylight but once, when they put in to 
Astoria for a few hours. 

I, with a small party of Canadians, shipped on 
board the trim little barquentine W. B. Scranton, 
and had a lovely trip of ten days. On Sabbath we 
held religious services, the first we had had during 
our long journey. 

As we passed through the Straits of Juan de 
Fuca, on the last night, and in sight of the lights of 
Victoria, a storm caught us. So severe was it that 
Captain Cathcart and his men were on deck all 
night, and were obliged to put about ship continu- 
ally to keep her driving between the three lights of 
Victoria, Dungeness and Race Rocks. 

At daybreak the wind subsided, and the morning 
found us in a dead calm away outside the Royal 
Roads. 

The beauty of the sight which met our eyes as 
the day brightened can never be forgotten. The 
grand snow-capped Olympian Range lay to the 
south, and away to the east the rising sun cast rays 
of crimson light on old Mount Baker, as it nestled 
back from the great Coast Range of hills, while 
the glaciers seemed to shoot back light to the snow 
on its lofty peak. 

84 



WESTWARD, HO! 

To the north was that most beautiful and natural 
park, Beacon Hill. Victoria, we were told, nestled 
just behind it, though not much of the town could 
be seen from where our ship lay. 

About noon of the same day, April nth, we were 
landed by a small boat on the rocks near where the 
outer wharf has since been built. 

First Impressions. 

The natural beauty of its situation entitled Vic- 
toria, then as now, to the name of Queen City of the 
Pacific Coast. 

The town was not large, but the first Parliament 
buildings and several good-sized churches gave it 
importance and helped to enhance the effect of its 
appearance. The place was crowded with men, the 
chief stir of business being where the " Cheap 
Johns " had stores for outfitting the miners — you 
could hear one on each side of the street auctioneer- 
ing their goods almost night and day. The Hud- 
son's Bay Company's store and wharf, with their 
little boats, the Enterprise and Otter, were rushing 
business to the port of Queensborough (now New 
Westminster) , on the Fraser River, where the goods 
were transferred to river steamers and rushed on 
up to the diggings. 

Besides those who took passage on the steamers, 
hundreds were venturing in small boats and canoes, 
many of which were wrecked or lost on the Gulf of 
Georgia and the treacherous river. And some of 
those who escaped shipwreck were murdered by the 
savages before they reached the mines. 

35 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

New Westminster was then a growing village, 
situated on Mary Hill, which was still partly cov- 
ered with immense timber. To the east, looking up 
the Fraser River, nature presented another grand 
panorama of glorious mountains, upon whose lofty 
peaks the snow lay all the year round. 

From here the stern-wheel steamers carried 
freight and passengers to Yale, then the terminus of 
steamboat navigation, nearly one hundred miles up 
the Fraser. Thence the miner carried his goods 
on his back, or had them carried on the backs of 
pack animals or in ox-waggons, nearly four hun- 
dred miles farther. About this time the great wag- 
gon road was completed to Cariboo, and the treach- 
erous trails over " Jackass " (a difficult ascent 
behind Yale) and other mountains were abandoned. 

In addition to the river route, hundreds of men 
came in overland from California, by way of What- 
com and Sumas, or by the Columbia and through 
the Okanagan Valley. 

The winter of 1 86 1-2 was one of unusual length 
and severity, and the great " rush " to the mines set 
in too early, with the result that many endured 
untold hardships and suffering, and many others 
who came into the country were never heard of 
again. 

Long before the summer was over hundreds 

returned — some from the mines and some, indeed, 

who had never reached the mines — poorer and wiser 

than when they came. Many who were cursing the 

country and leaving it were advised to take up land 

and settle in the lovely valleys on the Lower Fraser 

36 



WESTWARD, HO! 

— Chilliwack, Sumas, and Langley, or the Delta 
lands near the mouth. They derided the idea of 
these lands being any good. But the few who did 
remain and take up land are now prosperous and 
wealthy farmers, and have lived to see this once 
despised district become the " Garden of British 
Columbia." 

The government of the country was then colonial, 
under a Governor appointed by the Home Govern- 
ment and a small Council. James (afterwards Sir 
James) Douglas, the first Governor, had been a 
Chief Factor in the Hudson's Bay Company and 
Governor of Vancouver Island. He was much 
respected and beloved by all who knew him well. 
but especially by the natives of the country. He 
was a wise, upright and impartial Governor over 
the two colonies, Vancouver Island and British Col- 
umbia, which, though nominally distinct, were for 
purposes of government practically one. 

About this time, when the rush to the mines 
produced a more or less lawless condition of 
affairs, Matthew (afterwards Sir Matthew) Beg- 
bie, an English barrister, was appointed to 
the bench. He dispensed justice in the col- 
onies with so firm a hand that for years he 
was a terror to evil-doers. Many stories are told 
of him, but the following will serve to show the 
fearless character of the man. A fellow was being 
tried before him, charged with sand-bagging a 
miner and obtaining his gold. There was hardly 
any doubt that he had committed the crime. The 
evidence given was so convincing that a verdict of 
" guilty " appeared the only possible one. But the 

37 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

jury found him not guilty. " Prisoner at the bar," 
said his lordship, " the jury have found you not 
guilty. I discharge you, and now I recommend you 
to go and sand-bag the jurymen." 

Besides the Methodist Church, the Episcopalian, 
Presbyterian, Congregational and Roman Catholic 
Churches were all doing good work among the 
white colonists. I shall never forget the unspeak- 
able delight with which, after nearly six weeks' 
deprivation, I had the privilege again of attending 
love feast and sacrament. I was admitted by ticket 
from the Rev. Dr. Evans, pastor of the church in 
Victoria. I was like a bird let out of a cage, and 
entered with joy into the spirit of the meeting. It 
was afterwards asked by some of the brethren: 
" Who was that strange boy in home-spun clothes 
who had the audacity to disturb the quiet of the 
church by his ' Amen/ ' Hallelujah,' and ' Praise 
the Lord'?" 

As the spring advanced the lovely climate became 
apparent. The genial warmth of the beautiful 
spring and summer days was followed by cool 
nights, when anyone in health might enjoy refresh- 
ing sleep. 

The extensive timber areas, one of the most valu- 
able assets of the country, were already attracting 
capital. A number of sawmills and spar-camps 
began shipping spars and lumber to many parts of 
the world. No one could go through the primeval 
forests of those days without being impressed with 
their natural greatness. Tall firs abounded, many 
of them from two hundred to three hundred feet in 
height, standing straight, their stems unbroken by 

88 



WESTWARD, HO! 

a single branch until they reached the bushy, spread- 
ing tops. Equally tall and gigantic cedars grew side 
by side with hemlock, spruce and the smaller vine 
maple, the shady, broad-leafed soft maple, ash, 
birch, cottonwood, apple, cherry and alder. Such 
a wealth of foliage caused one to exclaim, " Lo ! 
God is here! Let us adore." 

These were some of the first impressions of the 
land which was to be my home for so many years. 

The following eleven months were spent in hard 
manual labor, by which I earned sufficient to return 
the money, with interest, which had been so gener- 
ously loaned to defray the expenses of my journey. 
This gave me excellent opportunities to gain an 
insight into the life and needs of the country and its 
people — a knowledge which could not well have 
been gained otherwise. I was employed on the 
wharf, at work in the woods, clearing land, and on 
the roads being built by the Government, as well as 
on rough carpentering work in putting up buildings. 
All this, in a measure, prepared me for canoe and 
camp life, and for superintending the erection of 
church and mission buildings, and for assisting the 
natives in building their houses — indeed, for all 
the practical mission work which lay before me. 

It was while working on the Government road 
that fall that I first saw the large dog salmon jump- 
ing and floundering up a stream so narrow that we 
could jump over it. So crowded were they, and so 
great was their number, that their fins and tails 
were, many of them, worn off in the struggle. It 
was not an uncommon thing to see black bears, in 
such a field, fishing for themselves, and eagles by the 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

score, as well as ravens, carrying off their supply of 
food. We saw elk and deer in great numbers, and 
water fowl in clouds. And the conviction grew 
upon one that a land of such mountains and rivers, 
seas and forests, teeming with life, such coal and 
gold fields and such a magnificent climate, was 
destined to become a great and grand country. 

All this time my mind and sympathies were 
excited by the condition of the poor Indians, as it 
was for their temporal and spiritual welfare I had 
left my home and friends. When I saw the thou- 
sands from the far north coast, as well as from the 
interior, crowding into and about the towns, being 
more and more debauched and degraded by the 
white man's diseases and fire-water; when I saw 
how little human life was respected by them, and 
realized how little was being done to stem the tide 
of evil among them, it made my heart burn within 
me. 

At Victoria these people were so crowded 
together, and in such great numbers, that the 
natives from the north came into violent collision 
with those from the south, and bloodshed was the 
result. To put a stop to this, the citizens petitioned 
the Government to send the northerners away to 
their homes. 

All this, and much more that we saw among these 
people, would tend to grieve the hardest heart, and 
to inspire one to make a decided and determined 
effort for their salvation and civilization. And daily 
I was hoping and praying that the way might soon 
open for me to commence work among them. 

40 



CHAPTER IV. 
AT NANAIMO—THE SCHOOL. 

" O, teach me, Lord, that I may teach 

The precious things Thou dost impart, 
And wing my words that they may reach 
The hidden depths of many a heart." 

— Frances Ridley Havergal. 

In March, 1863, I was asked by the Rev. 
Ephraim Evans, D.D., Superintendent of Missions 
in British Columbia, to go to Nanaimo to teach an 
Indian school. 

I said, " Doctor, I should like to go, but I do not 
know the language." 

He said, in a very decided tone of voice, " Go 
and learn the language. My brother James learned 
two or three Indian languages." [He alluded to 
Rev. James Evans, the heroic missionary to Nor- 
way House, and inventor of the wonderful Cree 
syllabic characters.] 

The very commanding way in which that states- 
manlike man put it helped to inspire me to make the 
effort. I said to myself, " If your brother James 
could learn two or three languages, so can I, by the 
help of God." 

I was off from Victoria by the first conveyance, 

the little sloop Alarm, taking with us Her Majesty's 

mail — there were no steamboats to Nanaimo in 

those days. We made the trip, some seventy-five 

miles from Victoria, in eight days. 

41 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Nanaimo was a small town, almost entirely built 
of logs, situated on a hillside facing the harbor, with 
a large Indian village a mile away along the shore. 

We were met and cordially welcomed by Bro. 
Bryant — afterwards the Rev. Cornelius Bryant — at 
that time the oldest Methodist in British Columbia. 
I was soon at work in the Indian camp, in the little 
shell of a building built by Rev. E. Robson, which 
served both as a school-house and church. Brother 
Robson had commenced the work among the 
Indians, holding school for a time, until the pressure 
of his many other duties as pastor to the people of 
the neighboring town compelled him to give it up. 

My pupils were a wild-looking lot of little folk, 
with painted and dirt-begrimed faces and long, 
uncombed hair. Some of them were clothed in 
little print shirts, others had a small piece of blanket 
pinned around them, while some had no clothing at 
all. 

One of the first difficulties was my ignorance of 
their language. Hence I had to use the language of 
signs. Beckoning and pointing to the school-house, 
I sought to persuade them to come into school. 
They would look at me, laugh at my efforts, and 
make a bolt for the bushes near by. Sometimes I 
made an attempt to capture them, but they would 
run like wild hares, and I could not get near them. 

I had always a love for children, and prided 
myself on my ability to win them ; but these, I was 
afraid, were going to outdo me. 

Finally I took an Indian with me to the woods 
and secured two stout poles or posts, with which we 

42 



AT NANAIMO— THE SCHOOL 

fixed up a swing at the back of the school-house. 
Then I started again with my sign language, and 
at last succeeded in getting one of them into the 
swing. As I swung the little fellow to and fro I 
noticed the others peeping out curiously from 
among the bushes. Pointing to the swing and then 
to the school-house, I beckoned to them, as much as 
to say, " If you come here and have a swing you 
will have to go to school." By this means I got 
acquainted with them and won their confidence. 

As I saw the difficulty of reaching them, my 
struggle to secure a knowledge of their language 
became intense. Often in the night I would be 
found on my knees praying to God to help me to get 
my tongue around the difficult gutteral tones. 

One who has never tried it cannot fully realize 
the difficulty of securing a language without gram- 
mar or printed vocabulary. I had to make my own 
dictionary little by little. First I got a small book 
and put down English words on the one side, and 
when I learned their Indian equivalents put them 
down on the other. Day by day I got fresh words, 
and when walking about visiting the sick or looking 
after my pupils I would be pronouncing the words 
I had secured. 

Finally I got my first sentence together and 
started through the village one morning shouting as 
hard as I could shout, and making the sounds as 
much like an old Indian as possible : " Muck-stow- 
ay-wilth May-tla ta school " — " All children come 
to school," repeating this again and again as I went 
along. 

43 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

The old people ran out of their houses to see what 
old Indian was passing. Putting their hands to 
their ears they said: " Listen to him! He speaks it 
just like an Indian/' and then they laughed. 

A lot of the little folk followed me, and I went 
from house to house arousing others, getting them 
out from under their dirty blankets, washing their 
faces, and then taking them along to school. 

This method I followed for a while. Sometimes 
there was nothing near at hand with which to wash 
them, and they would run off without it. To over- 
come this difficulty we got a big barrel, and sawing 
it in two, filled the two halves with fresh water and 
placed them on either side of the school-house door. 
Then we got one or two big barley sacks and cut 
them up into strips for towels, and supplied some 
bits of soap and a couple of big combs. And now 
everybody had to do his toilet before he came into 
school. 

It was an amusing sight indeed to see those little 
fellows at it. They would dash and splash the 
water over them, and the principal part of the dirt 
would be left on the towel. But by perseverance 
we got them to use it in the right way. 

The most trying condition of things, however, 

was the need of clothes for the children. Some of 

them had the scantiest dress, and some no dress at 

all. So I wrote to certain lady friends in Victoria, 

explaining to them the condition and appearance of 

my pupils, and asking if they would gather up some 

cast-off clothing and send to me. The kind ladies 

very soon responded to the appeal and promised 

44 



AT NANAIMO— THE SCHOOL 

to send a box. This was my first " Supply Com- 
mittee." 

Some weeks passed and the gift came, and 1 
shall never forget the exciting time we had when 
the great box was opened in the school-house. The 
sparkling eyes and eager faces of the dusky little 
mortals was a picture indeed. 

Of course, many of the clothes were much too 
large and had to be " fixed up," but what did that 
matter ? 

Like white children, they wanted to " try on." 
One little girl was soon inside of a dress about twice 
too long for her, and holding up the front, with the 
long train following, she went prancing up and 
down in it, looking very proud. 

The excitement became great. One little boy was 
trying on a coat much too big for him. Another 
little fellow got hold of a little pair of pants which 
he thought were the thing for him, and was button- 
ing up the waist, when the others burst into loud 
laughter and told him he had got into them the 
wrong side first. 

Some Indian women, directed by Mrs. Raybold, a 
good lady from town, were soon busy with needle 
and thread, while the missionary plied the shears. 
And so we worked and sewed and cut and fixed up, 
until we had the children fairly well dressed. 

The old people, in the meantime, showed very 
little appreciation, often, indeed, taking the children 
away with the most silly excuses. 

On their hunting and fishing trips they carried 
nearly all their household effects, children, dogs, 

45 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

cats, chickens, etc. Hence we often had to follow 
them and teach school on the beach, or under a 
shady tree on the bank of the river. 

After I had been some time at this work, spend- 
ing my whole energy for the benefit of their chil- 
dren, some of the parents asked me how long they 
had to let their children go to school before I would 
pay them. I replied, " Oh, I couldn't pay you. In 
our country the people pay the teacher." '' Oh, 
well," they said, " we cannot let them go much 
longer unless you pay us." 

But by and by the swing, our singing and kind- 
ness won the hearts of the little ones, and they came 
of their own accord when the hand-bell was rung. 

Sometimes, on a fine day in the summer, they 
would take a notion to run off and keep away from 
school. What boy or girl likes to attend school on 
a hot day ? When I started to round them up they 
made for the beach, and when I drew near they 
would slip off their blanket or simple dress and 
make a bolt for the salt water. In they would go, 
the tide being up, diving and swimming away out 
of reach of everybody. For a little you would lose 
sight of them, then away in the distance you would 
see two or three little fellows pop up, shake their 
heads, rub their hands over their faces, and cry out, 
"Ha! ha! ha!" 

In spite of all the difficulties in the way of rapid 
progress, many who were naturally bright made con- 
siderable advancement. It was from this school 
that little Satana (afterwards David Sallosalton) 

46 



AT NANAIMO— THE SCHOOL 

came to me and gave himself up to God and the 
work of evangelizing his people. 

It was while I was engaged in my work at 
Nanaimo that I had the pleasure of a visit from 
Wm. Duncan, of the Church Missionary Society, 
who had spent several years among the Tsimpseans 
at Metlakatlah, and who afterwards was instru- 
mental in founding the model missionary com- 
munity at that place. The pleasurable acquaintance 
thus made was years afterwards renewed when I 
went north to undertake missionary work among 
the people of the same nation. Wm. Duncan was 
one of the most successful of missionaries, earnest, 
devoted, resourceful, a man the influence of whose 
life and labors will always be felt among the people 
for whom his life was given. 



47 



CHAPTER V. 

HEATHEN STREET VS. CHRISTIAN 
STREET. 

" O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord, 
Until my very heart o'erflow 
In kindling thought and glowing word, 
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show." 

— Haver gal. 

The work of evangelization went on side by side 
with that of the teaching of the children. From the 
first we established regular religious services, 
preaching and prayer-meeting, and, in time, class- 
meeting. 

Alternately with Rev. Edward White,* superin- 
tendent of the Mission, I visited the different points 
on the east coast of Vancouver Island, from Comox 
to Victoria, calling at Chemainus, Salt Spring 
Island, Cowichan, Saanich, and many other points. 

Numbers of the poor heathen were little by little 
led to give heed to the message of truth and aban- 
don their old ways of superstition and sin. Still 

* Rev. Edward White was one of our first missionaries 
to the Pacific Coast, and during my earlier years at Nanaimo 
was my superintendent. His son, the Rev. Dr. J. H. White, 
now local Superintendent of Missions for British Columbia, 
is a worthy successor of a noble father. I still gratefully 
recall the many kindnesses shown me by our brother and 
his good wife while an inmate of the parsonage, before the 
little mission house was built in the Indian village. Brother 
White's words of counsel and encouragement were always 
an inspiration to me. 

43 



itt 




HEATHEN STREET VS. CHRISTIAN STREET 

we felt that the education of these people would not 
be complete unless they were taught habits of order 
and industry. Their old houses and their surround- 
ings were wretchedly filthy and disorderly, and little 
calculated to help them in their efforts to rise. 

We must set them the example in improving the 
surroundings of the little church and the mission 
house, which had been built adjoining the church. 
Hence we commenced to clear off the stumps and 
roots from the church lot, and made it ready for 
cultivation. I took the boys and men and went to 
the woods and got out posts and rails and pickets, 
and thus showed them how to fence and cultivate a 
garden. 

The old heathen house, from its very character, 
was the hot-bed of vice. Fancy a great barn-like 
building, sometimes one hundred feet long by thirty 
wide, made of split cedar boards fastened together 
with poles and withes and strips of strong bark, and 
occupied by as many as a dozen families, only separ- 
ated from each other by low partitions. 

Picture such a building, with no floor other than 
the ground, no entrance for light except the door, 
when open, and the cracks in the walls and the roof. 
Around the inside of such a building were ranged 
the beds, built up on rude platforms. In the corners 
were piles of mats and fishing-tackle and rubbish. 
Each family had their own fire, and these were built 
all along through the house, the smoke circulating 
generally through the building and finally finding 
its way out as best it could by cracks and other open- 
ings. Under the bunks and overhead and hanging 

49 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

from the poles were the family stores of dried fish 
and berries. In the midst were many miserable 
dogs and cats, and, later, chickens as well. This 
picture multiplied a dozen or more times, according 
to the population, went to make up the " rancharee," 
as the Indian village was sometimes called. 

Is it any wonder that disease and vice flourished 
under such favorable surroundings? 

With the example of the little mission-house and 
its garden before them, a number were inspired to 
have individual plots marked out for themselves. 
They cleared off their lots and had their houses 
built and neatly whitewashed, their gardens planted 
with fruit trees and bordered with shade trees, thus 
presenting a striking contrast to the heathen houses 
which they had left. 

In time a street was cleared and graded in front 
of these houses, and the contrast with the heathen 
village which faced the beach was complete. 

In a speech before the English Conference made 
after his visit to British Columbia, Dr. Wm. Morley 
Punshon said " that he had seen the powerful influ- 
ences of the Gospel far away on the Pacific Coast, 
near Nanaimo, on the east coast of Vancouver 
Island, where he saw the heathen street and the 
Christian street side by side. As the people became 
converted they moved to the Christian street." 

Later on I followed up this work of education 
among the tribes on the Nanaimo and Fraser 
Rivers, teaching them not only how to improve 
their homes, but to till their ground and plant their 
orchards, and in every way take their places among 

50 



HEATHEN STREET VS. CHRISTIAN STREET 

their white brethren. To-day the Indians of these 
districts have their little farms, cultivate their own 
grain and hay and roots, and raise their own cattle. 

To show the influence of this early teaching, 
more than one of our young men, who had earned 
considerable money and were urged by their friends 
to throw it away in the potlatch, chose rather to 
purchase cattle and horses with which to stock their 
little farms. 

But not only did we teach them the gospel of self- 
help. They were encouraged to undertake the local 
improvements on their own church and school- 
house, and to help spread the Gospel of the blessed 
Christ by contributing to the funds of the Mission- 
ary Society. 



51 



CHAPTER VI. 

DIFFICULTIES WITH THE LANGUAGE. 

" Jesus, ta skwish tseetsel tomuk 
Ta tlee-tlup tomuk shnays, 
Lee-zas ta mes-tay-oh wa-tlats 
Ta lee-am see-see nam tla-o." 

(In An-ko-me-num.) 

" Jesus, the name high over all, 
In hell or earth or sky; 
Angels and men before it fall 
And devils fear and fly." 

The number and varied dialects of the Indian 
languages of the Coast were such that very few 
white men ever tried to learn them. Of the An-ko- 
me-num language alone there are at present at least 
five or six different dialects. 

The Chinook jargon, or Oregon trade language, 
as it is sometimes called, is really not a language, 
but is a composite of several languages. 

The first trading posts on the Coast were at 
Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and 
among the Chinook Indians on the Columbia River. 
Among the first traders were the servants of the 
great fur companies, the Hudson's Bay, the Nor'- 
West, and the Astor. 

To the At words, learned by the traders at 
Nootka, were added many others from the language 
of the Chinooks, as well as English and French, the 

52 



DIFFICULTIES WITH THE LANGUAGE 

languages of the traders themselves. Some few 
words were taken from the An-ko-me-num and 
some were formed from the sound. The Chinook 
words predominating gave the name to the jargon. 
It was in use as early as 1804, and in 1863 a 
dictionary of the jargon was published by the 
Smithsonian Institute, containing some 500 words. 
Of these 221 were Chinook, 18 At or Nootka, 94 
French, 67 English, and 21 were credited to various 
branches of the Salish or Flathead family of 
Indians. 

In early years a trading knowledge of Chinook 
was necessary in order to do business, as is a like 
knowledge of French on the borders of the Pro- 
vince of Quebec. It is now rapidly falling into dis- 
use, the result of the training in English which some 
of the later generations have received in the school. 
At the best it is but a wretched means of com- 
munication, poor in expression and almost destitute 
of grammatical forms. 

" Klah-how-yah," the term of salutation, bears 
such a striking resemblance to "How are you?" 
that one is disposed to accept its derivation from the 
oft-repeated enquiries of the friends of the intrepid 
explorer Clark after his health, " Clak-how-yah ?" 

" Tum-tum " is a sound word for heart, and is 
used as well to express will, purpose, desire. " Lip- 
lip " (to boil) is another such word, imitating boil- 
ing water. " Hee-hee " indicates laughter, hence 
any kind of amusement. " Kol-sick-waum-sick " is 
very expressive of fever and ague. 
4 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" Mamook " (to make) can be used with any 
noun to indicate some form of activity. 

"Ula-hee" (ground) is linked with different 
words to convey a more extended idea. " Saghalie 
illahee " means literally " highlands/' but also sug- 
gests " a mountain," and finally " heaven." " Bos- 
ton illahee," the United States, etc. 

" Saghalie tyee," which literally means " the 
chief above," is the word used for God. 

The poverty of expression may be gathered from 
the fact that " tikke," meaning " to wish, to desire," 
is the only way to express the cardinal virtue 
" love." " Happiness," " joy," as well as " good 
health," are simply "klosh tumtum," which liter- 
ally means a " good heart." 

" Skookum tumtum " (a strong heart) conveys 
the idea of " courage." " Chako " (come) and 
" chee " (new) are combined in an expression with 
which most Westerners are familiar, " chee-chako " 
(newcomer) or " tenderfoot." 

An amusing story is told of a certain dignitary of 
the Church, which very fully illustrates the powers 
and limitations of Chinook. Addressing, among 
other audiences, a band of Coast Indians, he began 
with the flowery and high-sounding sentence, 
" Children of the forest." The interpreter trans- 
lated it into good Chinook, but the Indians naturally 
enough were indignant, and only a few remained to 
hear him out. " Children of the forest " literally 
translated was " Tenas man kopa hyas stik," which 

means simply " Little man among big stick," and 

54 



DIFFICULTIES WITH THE LANGUAGE 

they resented being called " little men," or even 
children, and they did not live in the woods. 

No Chinook for Me. 

From the first I refused to have anything to do 
with Chinook, and when the people would meet me 
on the road and commence to talk in it, I made 
them understand by signs that I wished them to 
speak their own language, in order that I might 
learn it. 

So intense was my anxiety to get their language 
that I found myself, when asleep, dreaming in it, 
and dreaming that I was preaching to hundreds of 
people in their own tongue. 

I attended the great feasts and heathen councils, 
and sat by the hour listening to the old chiefs and 
orators relating the stories of the chase, or recount- 
ing the tales of the bloody deeds of other days, 
when they went out on great war expeditions and 
returned with many scalps. 

How the old orators would rise with the enthusi- 
asm of the occasion and seem to make the ground 
tremble under their feet as they rejoicingly told of 
the names and deeds of their fathers, to fire the 
ambitions of the young princes and young men of 
rank — for it was only the high-caste who were per- 
mitted to sit in these councils. It was at these 
gatherings we got the proper sound of many words. 

The children also were a great help to me in the 

study of the language. As I gave them the English 

name for the objects around them I would have 

them repeat it in their own tongue, and by earnest 

55 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

perseverance and the help of God I soon had the 
unspeakable joy of being able to preach to them in 
their own language the unsearchable riches of 
Christ. 

In all my work since then I have experienced that 
in no way can one properly preach the truth to a 
people except in their own language. This know- 
ledge of the language opened up my way to other 
tribes and bands of the same nationality. 

On my first visit to the Fraser River, some years 
later, I came to a village early one morning, and, 
stepping out of my canoe, shouted out at the top of 
my voice in An-ko-me-num, " Why are all the chiefs 
sleeping like children so late this morning?" The 
old men rushed out to see the big Indian. I again 
shouted out the same words, and they cried out, 
" Listen to him ! Where has he come from ? We 
heard no white man speak like this. Has he come 
from above?" 

On one of my canoe trips years ago around 
Burrard Inlet, when there was only one sawmill 
where now a beautiful city (Vancouver) and a 
number of thriving villages are situated, a white 
man, who had made me welcome to his home and 
treated me to dinner, said, as I was getting into my 
canoe, while a number of white men stood by, " Do 
you know what I was thinking, Mr. Crosby? That 
if you would put a blanket on and get into the canoe 
and commence to talk, nobody would know you 
from an Indian." 

I said, " I beg your pardon, sir ; I didn't know 
that I looked so much like an Indian." 

56 



DIFFICULTIES WITH THE LANGUAGE 

"Oh!" he replied, "I didn't mean that; I meant 
to say, you speak the language so well that we could 
not tell you from an Indian speaking." 

Amusing Mistakes. 

There are amusing sides to this matter of acquir- 
ing a language. In my early efforts in the use of 
the native tongue, while I was preaching one Sun- 
day on the riches that are in Christ, and the poverty 
and misery which sin brings, I noticed when I spoke 
of poverty that a group of young men on one side 
could not contain themselves for laughter. They 
tried to straighten up, for they were usually very 
respectful in the services. 

After repeating the word again and seeing the 
same behaviour, I concluded I must have made some 
mistake, and turning to the young men I said, 
" Now, young men, I see by your actions that I said 
something which has caused you amusement; per- 
haps some word of yours which I do not know very 
well. Tell me what it is." 

They hung their heads with shame. But I 
>ressed them for reply, saying : "If you were 
endeavoring to speak English you would wish, to be 
rorrected if you had made a mistake." 

So pressed, young Quin-nom, one of their num- 
)er, said : " Yes, Mr. Crosby, you speak our lan- 
guage very well, almost as well as an Indian, but 
o-day you made a mistake. Our word for poor is 
sel-la-wa,' and when you were speaking of sin 
naking us poor you said ' sel-la-we-a,' which is a 

soman's name who lives away down the Coast 

57 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

about sixty miles, and so we could not help laugh- 
ing." 

Thus our readers may see some of the difficulties 
we labored under, when only a slight change in the 
tone of voice might change the meaning of a whole 
sentence — difficulties, however, that every student 
of a new and unwritten language has to contend 
with. 

No Swearing in Indian. 

Speaking of the peculiarities of the language, it 
may be remarked that the Indian languages have 
no words properly to express abstract qualities, no 
words to express the ideas of love, peace, pardon, 
repentance, etc., as we understand them. So that 
one of our first tasks was to explain to them as best 
we could by illustration and otherwise the meaning 
of such words. 

On the other hand it should also be said that there 
are no " swear words " in the Indian languages. 
Yes, it is a fact, the poor Indian must go to his 
white brother to learn to swear or take the name of 
God in vain. In the An-ko-me-num, the worst that 
can be said is, " Kai ! kai ! kai ! tanowa squimag," 
which interpreted means, "Die! die! die! you dog." 
This, in an angry tone, is the worst they can say. 
Of course, the tone and the look have a good deal to 
do with it. 

Once I heard a little boy swear loudly in the pres- 
ence of other boys. I stopped the play and said to 
him, calling him by name, " Johnny, where did you 

learn to say those awful words and to use the name 

58 



DIFFICULTIES WITH THE LANGUAGE 

of Jesus in that way?" " Oh," he said, " is it bad? 
I heard a white man speak like that at the cannery 
where I was fishing, but if you say it is wrong I will 
not do it any more." " Yes," I said, " it is very 
wrong, you must not call that dear name in that 
way any more." 

How thoroughly ashamed I have been again and 
again, when I have heard an Indian swearing, at the 
thought that he must have learned it from one of 
my race and people. 

The Lord's Prayer in Chinook. 

Nesika papa, mitlite kopa saghalie, klosh spose 
konaway tilikum mamook praise mika nem; klosh 
spose konaway tilikum mamook tyee mika; klaska 
spose konaway tilikum kopa okook illahie mamook 
mika tumtum, kaw-kwa klaska mamook kopa sag- 
halie-illahie. Okook sun, pe konaway-sun potlatch 
nesika muk-amuk ; pe klosh mika mash okook ma-sa- 
tchie nesika mamook kopa mika, kaw-kwa nesika 
mash okook ma-sa-tchie hul-oi-ma tilikum mamook 
kopa nesika; pe klosh mika mamook help nesika, 
spose halo-ikta tolo nesika kopa ma-sa-tchie; pe 
klosbe mika mamook haul nesika spose halo nesika 
chako kla-kow-yu. 

Klosh spose kawkwa. 



59 



CHAPTER VII. 
A SLAVERY WORSE THAN DEATH. 

"All evil thoughts and deeds, 
Anger, and lust, and pride 
The foulest, rankest weeds 
That choke Life's growing tide!" 

— Longfellow. 

There were difficulties in the way of the evan- 
gelization and education of these poor people other 
than that of their heathen customs and peculiar lan- 
guage. Low, wicked white men were constantly 
hanging around the different camps, smuggling 
whiskey among the people, and using every wicked 
means to lead the women and children astray. 

It was not an uncommon thing for these poor 
blind heathen parents and relatives to sell their little 
daughters to the white men for the basest of pur- 
poses. We went to the magistrates and asked if it 
was allowable to sell slaves in this country. The 
magistrate replied, " Oh, no ; why certainly not." 
But when we explained to them the nature of the 
slavery, they would stammer a little and with 
feigned indifference they would claim that it was an 
Indian custom and form of marriage which they 
would not interfere with. 

Referring to slavery, it is true that from earliest 
times the Indians kept slaves. In all their wars the 
men and boys were either scalped or taken as slaves. 

60 



A SLAVERY WORSE THAN DEATH 

When women were taken it was usually to increase 
the number of slaves or wives of the chief. 

Years ago, Governor Simpson, visiting Fort 
Stickine, Alaska, says : " We met here fully four or 
five thousand people. One-third of the population 
were slaves. Many who were born slaves were 
treated in the most cruel way." 

Chiefs from the far north, to keep up this cruel 
system, would travel away to the south in their 
large war canoes, and for the most trivial thing 
would pick a quarrel with a tribe, fight, take away 
many slaves, and, going back to the north, sell them 
to enrich themselves, or would keep some of them 
as their own servants or slaves. 

No value was put upon the life of a slave. They 
would shoot them down at a moment's notice. In 
the dreadful incantations of the sorcerers or medi- 
cine men, the accusation of witchcraft was easily 
fixed upon a slave, and he was sacrificed without 
mercy. In the north, when raising the large houses 
of the chiefs, it is said that every large post had a 
slave buried under it to hold the post in place, and 
often at the great potlatches a chief would slaughter 
a number of slaves to show how rich a man he was. 

In time, of course, some were incorporated into 
the tribe, and, forgetting their own language, 
remained among their one-time captors. In some 
cases, after years of absence, the instinctive longing 
for home and friends would lead them to take all 
chances of recapture, and after enduring great hard- 
ships to find their way back to their native village, 
where they were welcomed as from the dead. 

61 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Much of the old-time slavery was passing away 
when the missionary came, but a slavery in a new 
and more horrible form was being established. The 
advent of thousands of white men, miners and lum- 
bermen, many of whom were vicious and depraved, 
brought temptation to their doors. The Indian's 
love of display, and his ambition to be considered 
of importance, which found expression in his giving 
of great feasts and potlatches, led him to seize any 
ready and easy means of gain. 

At one time among the Indians, as among all 
heathen people, the girls were counted of little 
value. If they grew up they were to become the 
burden-bearers of their masters of the other sex. 
An Indian mother has been known to take her little 
baby girl out into the woods and stuff its mouth 
with grass and leaves and leave it to die. And 
when asked why she did so, she would say, " I did 
not want her to grow up and suffer as I have suf- 
fered." 

But heathenism crushes out a mother's love and 
turns the heart to stone and changes a father into 
a foul, indifferent fiend. And so when the miners 
came the natives willingly sold their daughters, 
ranging from ten to eighteen years of age, for a 
few blankets or a little gold, into a slavery which 
was worse than death. 

For years these wretched, deluded people have 
visited our towns, our mining and lumbering and 
fishing camps, bringing their bright-eyed, happy 
little girls with them, and after having made a lot 
of money in this foul method, have returned to 

62 



A SLAVERY WORSE THAN DEATH 

make a great potlatch and ostentatiously give away 
hundreds of dollars of their ill-gotten gains. 

One child that we knew of refused to go with her 
parents for this purpose. When they tried to com- 
pel her, she said, " You can go. I will not go if you 
kill me," and then she ran to the woods. After they 
had left she made her way to the missionary and 
sought protection. 

Another child of about twelve years of age, who 
refused at first to follow a life of sin, was visited by 
a great rough fellow who, with his hand full of 
money and with promises of fine clothes and 
trinkets and sweets, coaxed her and finally prevailed 
upon her to come and live with him. 

A large number of girls were sold in this way 
from one of our mission schools by their cruel 
heathen parents and friends, at prices ranging from 
fifty to one hundred dollars each. Some of these 
poor children came to the mission-house at mid- 
night, almost broken-hearted, and said to the mis- 
sionary, " Please will you not take me in. They 
are going to sell me as a slave, and I don't want to 

go." 

We reasoned with their parents and heathen rela- 
tives, but our efforts were vain. We went to the 
cabins of the white men and expostulated with 
them, and were driven out with fiendish curses and 
told that it was none of our business. 

"Poor Little Quee-lawt!" 

On one occasion I found three poor women by 
the roadside near the sawmill at Nanaimo, all help- 

63 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

lessly drunk. It seemed of daily occurrence in those 
days to see women drunk. With these poor crea- 
tures was a little girl, Quee-lawt by name. She was 
one of the brightest and most attractive of our little 
scholars. When she first came to school, like some 
others of the children, she was very scantily clad, 
but by the kindness of some good ladies this little 
maid was neatly clothed, and because her forehead 
had not been flattened as much as some others, she 
was pleasing in appearance. She learned to read 
nicely and could sing very sweetly, and we had 
great hopes of a bright future for her. 

But alas! poor Quee-lawt had been led astray by 
these sinful women, and by some low, degraded 
white men had been robbed of her purity, made 
drunken and defiled. And here we saw her, all 
besmeared with dirt and filth — drunk, drunk. 

Poor Quee-lawt! the terrible drink and the vile 
treatment she had received were too much for her. 
She was carried home to the old chief's house and 
died that night. Oh, what a sad, sad, pitiful sight 
it was ! Poor little Quee-lawt ! Will not a just God 
lay at the door of those wretched white men the 
murder of this child? 

We could only wish that this vile blot upon the 

character of our fair province were wiped away. 

But still it continues. Some of the finest tribes on 

the Coast have for years been following this awful 

practice, until whole bands have been practically 

wiped out, and their only monument is a forest of 

totem poles raised in many cases with the money 

secured from this dreadful slavery. 

64 



A SLAVERY WORSE THAN DEATH 

Recently the provincial press has drawn attention 
to what they term the " slave traffic in girls " among 
the Kwa-kwulths of Cape Mudge and surrounding 
country. 

From the reports thus circulated we gather that 
these people have been making the practice of sell- 
ing their girls to white men and others for immoral 
purposes. At a recent potlatch, held in January, 
1906, a number of girls were sold at prices ranging 
from $300 to $1,200. The latter figure was paid 
by an Indian for a particularly attractive girl whom 
he planned to take with him to the various lumber 
camps for the purpose of gain. ;< It is proverbially 
true," says one writer, " that the Indians have no 
convictions or sentiments that cannot be easily over- 
come by greed of gain or power. Their chief and 
only object — that is, the men's — is to become great 
and powerful amongst their own people, and as the 
possession of money is the quickest road to power 
and the assumption of pride, some of these men to 
secure money, and secure it easily, have for years 
been selling their women." 

" Surely the Government," continues this same 
writer, " will not allow this state of affairs to exist 
any longer. By means of these women diseases are 
spread amongst our young men, and disasters too 
terrible to speak of must follow this indiscriminate 
dealing in the bodies and souls of these Indian 
women." 

With this whole matter are involved the ques- 
tions of Indian barter marriages and the potlatch, 

customs which, the missionaries know, are linked 

65 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

with heathenism, and which present some of the 
greatest difficulties to be met with in Christianizing 
and civilizing the Indian tribes of the Coast. 

In our judgment, if a law were enacted similar to 
one which was put in force in the State of Washing- 
ton some years ago, compelling any white men liv- 
ing with Indian* girls or women to marry them, or 
else the women must leave and return to their own 
people, we would to a large extent clear the country, 
as they did on the other side of the line, of this 
dreadful evil. 

The Indians, as well, should be compelled to give 
up their " barter marriages " and conform, as every 
one else must, to our Canadian marriage laws, and 
thus the greatest difficulty in the way of the sup- 
pressing of this evil would be removed. 

On account of the prevalence of this traffic in 
Indian girls, many of the early missionaries were 
led to establish " Girls' Homes " for the rescue and 
further protection of these poor victims of this 
awful system. 



66 



CHAPTER VIII. 
FEUDS AND BLOODSHED. 

" I am weary of your quarrels, 

Weary of your war and bloodshed, 

Weary of your prayers for vengeance, 

Of your wrangling and dissensions ; 

All your strength is in your union, 

All your danger is in discord ; 

Therefore be at peace henceforward, 

And as brothers live together." 

— " Hiawatha." 

The natives of the Pacific Coast are represented 
by some historians as a fierce, savage, warlike race. 
At one time they were a numerous people, but their 
own bloody and ferocious wars were the means in 
years gone by of greatly reducing their numbers, 
and the ravages of the white man's diseases and 
fire-water have so far completed the work that some 
tribes have become almost extinct. 

In very early days the white traders had several 
encounters with the natives, and the account is pre- 
served of the Indians of the west coast of Van- 
couver Island surrounding and capturing two ves- 
sels, one the Boston, at Nootka, and the other the 
Tonqnin, at Clayoquot. The latter was afterwards 
blown up, it is thought, by some imprisoned mem- 
bers of the crew, and hundreds of the captors who 
swarmed her decks were killed. Another vessel, 
the Atahualpa, was also taken by the Indians of 

67 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Millbank Sound, and four of the crew, including 
the captain, were killed. The vessel was, however, 
recaptured by the remaining members of the crew, 
who sailed away in safety. 

Their tales of war among themselves are thrill- 
ing and often very exciting. They boast of sweep- 
ing out whole tribes at once; of wading ankle deep 
in blood! of taking many slaves and killing and 
scalping the rest. Chiefs from the north would 
sweep down south in their great war-canoes and 
pick a quarrel with a southern tribe over some 
trifling matter, then enter into bloody conflict with 
them, take many slaves, and hasten back to the far 
north to sell them, and thus enrich themselves. 

The southern people fought among themselves, 
or, headed by some vicious chiefs, would make trips 
up the Fraser River or into Puget Sound, returning 
after a successful foray with the slaves taken in the 
fight, or more likely kidnapped at their fishing or 
berry-picking grounds. 

The northerners were not always successful in 
making the trip home with their booty. The 
Cowichans would gather at Dodds' Narrows and 
Active Pass, or at Cowichan Gap, and set upon the 
victors, often turning their victory into defeat. If 
they escaped the Cowichans they still had to run the 
gauntlet of the Yu-kwul-toes, the most to be 
dreaded of the whole coast tribes, and many a 
Tsimpshean, Hydah or Kling-get war party has 
found its death trap at Seymour Narrows or the 
Yu-kwul-toe Rapids. 

On one occasion a party of northerners, on their 

68 



FEUDS AND BLOODSHED 

way home through Dodds' Narrows, about seven 
miles south of Nanaimo, had a battle with some 
Nanaimos, whom they defeated, killing eleven war- 
riors. Striking off the heads of their slain enemies 
they took them with them, leaving the bodies, which 
were afterwards discovered by their friends. A 
short time after, in retaliation for the deed, on the 
south side of Salt Spring Island a canoe load of 
seven northern people were all butchered in a most 
shocking manner; stones were tied to their necks 
and they were sunk in the sea. Not reaching Vic- 
toria at the time expected, their friends instituted a 
search along the coast. I was then living at 
Nanaimo, and in the course of my work made fre- 
quent visits to Chemainus and Salt Spring Island, 
Cowichan and Saanich. On my next trip down the 
coast I was asked by the authorities to make 
inquiries regarding the lost ones. 

After preaching to the Indians at Chemainus I 
referred to the murder, and warned them, if they 
knew who the murderers were, not to conceal them, 
as sooner or later they would be found out. 

Several days after, on returning from Salt Spring 
Island, I met young chief Lis-tcheem, of the Che- 
mainus tribe, who had come out some three or four 
miles in a canoe to meet me. Approaching in that 
cautious, suspicious manner which only an Indian 
will manifest, he came alongside and, speaking in 
an undertone, said : ' Missionary, I want to say 
something that I don't want my people to know. 
You told us the other day that we must not hide the 

murderers. Now, a partv of our people have just 
5 69 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

returned from Victoria with a great deal of new 
property, and they seem to have money. We don't 
know where they got all this money. I suspect they 
are the party who murdered the people you spoke 
of. They are now camped on the Chemainus River. 
But don't tell the people that I told you." 

I immediately returned to Nanaimo and 
acquainted the magistrate with the facts. A party 
of ten special constables were sent down to the 
river, and the murderers were captured, brought to 
Nanaimo, given a preliminary hearing, and sent 
down to Victoria to stand their trial at the next 
assizes. 

Some time after, amid the busy rush of the mis- 
sionary's life, this young chief met me at my home 
in the Nanaimo camp, and said he had been down 
to the place where they heard the murder had been 
committed, some forty miles away, and had found 
their goods, clothing of all kinds, strewn upon the 
beach, particularly the clothes of a little child 
belonging to the party. This was the child of a 
white man from Nanaimo, whose Indian wife was 
on her way to take the steamer at Victoria to make 
a visit to her friends in the north. Among the 
other things he found a bunch of little papers, rolled 
up and stuck in the fork of a tree. This roll, which 
he handed to me, I found contained eighty-five 
dollars in bills. 

I took him to the magistrate, to whom he told his 
story and handed over the bills. The official 
praised him for his honesty and faithfulness, and as 
a reward gave him a note of recommendation say- 

70 



FEUDS AND BLOODSHED 

ing what a good, honest chief he was. This docu- 
ment, signed and sealed with a large red seal and 
placed in an official envelope, pleased the chief very 
much. 

Some weeks after he was in Victoria and hap- 
pened to show this paper, of which he was very 
proud, to a police officer, who at once put him in 
jail, where he was held as a witness for over two 
months. During this time his family were left to 
starve, and nothing was done to help them. Is it 
any wonder that the Indians were enraged at this 
high-handed piece of injustice, and that when the 
young chief finally was released he declared that if 
all the Indians and whites in the place were mur- 
dered he would never again tell anything that he 
had discovered about the matter. 

Speaking of the Indian's love of " a big paper," 
as they called an official certificate, I recall the 
amusing circumstance of a chief who was given 
" a paper " by a certain sea captain, which, not 
being able to read, he supposed was highly compli- 
mentary. The Indian went about, proudly showing 
to everyone a document which stated, " Look out 
for this fellow ; he is the greatest old rascal and big- 
gest thief I have ever met with." 

In those early days, when hundreds and thou- 
sands came from the north, it was not an uncommon 
thing to see a body floating in the harbor. It is the 
nature of an Indian always to keep in mind an old 
feud. Where blood has been shed they seek retalia- 
tion, and with them it is always " a life for a life." 

71 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

An Awful Night. 

Tsil-ka-mut, a chief of the old school of the 
An-ko-me-nums, nephew of Squin-es-ton, a chief of 
the Nanaimos, was the most influential man in the 
tribe. Squin-es-ton was recognized as the head, but 
Tsil-ka-mut, his nephew, led the way in all matters 
of business or council with other tribes. 

This younger chief in his youth was a great 
heathen, having been trained up in all heathen 
secrets from a child. He would often go away up 
the mountains and bathe in the mountain streams, 
where he said he had communion with the spirits 
and received power. 

He was a fine, stalwart, muscular fellow, with a 
foot very large and almost as hard and tough as a 
horse's hoof. He was a great hunter, and could 
fight, too, when it came in his way, and would keep 
one by the hour at his camp-fire telling of the bloody 
wars of former days. But he used to say that he 
would rather live in peace at any time than amidst 
war and trouble. 

Tsil-ka-mut exerted a great and good influence 
over the people, and his authority was respected. 
He seldom made speeches at their heathen feasts or 
councils, but when he did speak they would, in the 
most trying time, submit to what seemed to be his 
superior judgment. 

He was a man of peace, and tried, in his way, to 
preserve harmony in the tribes and encourage the 

72 



FEUDS AND BLOODSHED 

young people to attend church, though he did not 
attend very regularly himself. 

At one notable Christmas gathering, which, of 
course, all attended, he made a speech and said : 
" I want to say a few words. I am glad, very glad, 
that the missionaries are in our land to preach to 
us. It makes me feel very solemn to be here to-day. 
I say to the young people, never to laugh and play 
in God's house; it is not like out-of-doors. Do not 
listen to the old people, who are not wise in good 
things, but hear the missionary, who is our friend. 
Young men, it is very good for you to show an 
example to the children. You must always go to 
God's house and the children to school. I hope you, 
my children, will all become very wise. We older 
men cannot easily change our ways, we will soon 
be gone, but you young men will be with the chil- 
dren who are growing up; to you God's word has 
come. You must believe it and do God's will; this 
will be best for you." 

I shall never forget Tsil-ka-mut and that awful 
night when, after I had preached to the white people 
in town and had returned to my cabin home in the 
Indian village, about half past ten o'clock, our 
native local preacher, Amos Cushan, came to my 
door, rapped quickly, and in an excited tone of voice 
said, " Did you not hear the war-whoop? I think 
there is going to be trouble to-night." 

" I heard a noise. What is it?" I replied. 

"I think a big fight to-night, - sir !" said he. 
" Two chiefs with a number of their men have gone 

73 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

down towards Qual-la-kup's house, and I think a 
big fight, sir !" 

These two chiefs had for some time held a grudge 
against Chief Qual-la-kup, because of a quarrel 
between the two factions, which had resulted to the 
advantage of Qual-la-kup's clan. 

Immediately I sprang out of my house, and with 
my friend ran down through the woods, the shortest 
way to the house, and rushed in. The building was 
all in darkness, except for a few embers of a fire. 
In the dim darkness I could see two wild, savage- 
looking men, mercilessly assaulting the old man, 
Qual-la-kup, whom they had dragged out of bed. 
A number of others were standing around with 
clubs, looking wild enough and ready to knock a 
man down at any moment. 

I rushed towards the group, and with what 
seemed to me supernatural strength I flung myself 
upon them, sending one one way and another 
another. With that the old man seized his advan- 
tage, and getting up, all bruised and bleeding, he 
hid himself behind me, spreading my overcoat tails 
to hide him from his pursuers. 

At the same time the old chief stood dancing in 
front of me with fiendish yells, his knife in his 
hand, ready to strike the old man when the oppor- 
tunity came. 

" Don't you strike Qual-la-kup," I said to him. 
" You have injured him enough. Strike me if you 
must strike." 

Now the friends of both parties rushed in from 

74 




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12 

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2 

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FEUDS AND BLOODSHED 

all sides of the village, and in a few moments the 
great Indian house, some seventy feet long by thirty 
broad, was filled with a quarrelling multitude. For- 
tunately some torches were lighted, which enabled us 
to take in the scene, and for hours and hours Amos 
Cushan and I were rushing between quarrelling 
parties to stop their fighting. One would be struck 
with a club here, another with some sharp instru- 
ment there, and blood flowed freely. Amidst it all 
continued the awful din of rushing feet and the 
howls and screams of hellish rage. 

Suddenly Quin-num, the son of old Qual-la-kup, 
dashed in. He had just heard of the trouble, away 
at the other end of the village, and jumping out of 
bed and tucking his blanket around him, he seized 
the first weapon to hand, a claw-hammer, and hur- 
ried to the rescue of his father. 

I saw him rush in, trembling with anger, and I 
said, " Quin-num, be good! Don't fight!" 

" Oh," he said, and his voice was wild with rage, 
" I could listen to what you say, but look at the 
blood of my father!" 

And with that he let out an awful yell, and wheel- 
ing around, struck with the hammer the old chief 
who had clubbed his father, cutting his eye nearly 

out. 

Then the fighting commenced with renewed vigor 
and continued until four in the morning. We were 
nearly exhausted trying to get these savage men 
reconciled. It was evident that the old chief and his 
nephew had urged on the young men, and perhaps 

75 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

had given them whiskey to get them to undertake 
this dark deed. It was an old quarrel, and jealousy 
and pride were at the bottom of it. Qual-la-kup 
was a quiet old man and his people were generally 
respected. His son, Quin-num, had married into 
Squin-es-ton's tribe and seemed likely to secure a 
ruling position, which moved the other chief and 
his people to jealousy. 

While we were in the midst of this excitement, 
and hardly knowing who would be the next to fall, 
there came a lull in the storm, and we lifted up our 
hearts to God for help and direction. 

Just then Tsil-ka-mut arrived on the scene from 
the other end of the village, all painted and with his 
blanket tucked around his waist. The great big 
fellow did not touch anything or anybody, but just 
danced about, up and down, crying out, " My chil- 
dren, my children, don't be like little boys!" And 
you could feel the contempt in his tone. " Our 
fathers used to fight, but they would go and fight 
like men till they were wading in blood, and take 
many scalps. They would never go and take a man 
out of his bed unexpectedly in the night. Oh, you 
are like little boys! like little boys!" And on he 
danced up and down through the long house, 
repeating these simple words, " Like little boys, like 
little boys. Oh! you are like little boys!" until 
these savage men dropped their clubs, hid their 
knives behind their blankets, looking dreadfully 
ashamed, and one by one walked out. 

After we had washed the wounds and dressed 

76 



FEUDS AND BLOODSHED 

some fearful looking gashes, we offered a prayer of 
thanks to God and got away to rest, too much 
excited to sleep. 

Early the next day Tsil-ka-mut and others came 
to the mission house to thank me for being there 
that night, for they said : " O missionary, if you 
hadn't been there perhaps six or twelve men dead 
this morning. Then there would be such a savage, 
angry feeling in all our hearts, which would not 
leave us for many moons." 

" Were you not afraid?" " Did you not get 
hurt?" my friends have asked me. 

No, thank God, we were not hurt, and as for 
fear, we didn't think of it until it was all over, when 
we wondered we hadn't been knocked down. 
Surely " the angel of the Lord encampeth round 
about them that fear him, and delivereth them." 

We had the comfort of seeing Qual-la-kup and 
some of his friends come into the enjoyment of the 
blessed light. Qual-la-kup's brother, the uncle of 
David Sallosalton, and many others of his clan, 
became devoted Christians. 

Alas ! for the other poor old chief and his family ; 
some of them did not live out half their days. 

Poor, proud, jealous Quee-es-ton, the man who 
once knocked the missionary down and afterwards 
expressed his sorrow for having done so, was killed 
in a quarrel with some white men about whiskey. 
Whiskey was his great enemy, as well as that of his 
wife, Stah-cel-wet. They would have a supply of 
fire-water as often as they could get the money. I 

77 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

have more than once stood between them in their 
quarrelling, taking their whiskey away and getting 
them sobered up. At the time of my encounter with 
him, before mentioned, I pointed him to the Saviour 
of sinners and urged him to prepare to meet his 
God. He appeared repentant and seemed for a time 
to reform, but alas! for poor, weak human nature, 
he fell again. Chief Louis Good and family, of 
Nanaimo, now attend the services and profess 
Christianity. We trust they may lead lives of use- 
fulness. He is related to the family of chiefs. 
As for Tsil-ka-mut, we shall hear of him later. 



78 



CHAPTER IX. 
HOUSES, CLOTHING, CRUEL CUSTOMS. 

" Thou, whose Almighty word 

Chaos and darkness heard, 

And took their flight, 

Hear us, we humbly pray, 

And where the Gospel day 

Sheds not its glorious ray 

Let there be light." 

— Marriott. 

Reference has been made to the old type of 
heathen house, built of split cedar boards bound 
together with poles and withes or ropes made of 
cedar bark. The roof was formed of slabs of cedar, 
held down by large stones or by poles extending 
from one end to the other. Later on the roofs were 
made of rafters, on which were laid " shakes " — 
large split shingles — after the manner of the early 
settlers' barns. 

Under this roof, and immediately over the beds, 
were great sheets of cedar bark or large rush mats, 
placed thus better to protect the beds if the roof 
should leak, which it often did. There was no win- 
dow, no door, except a board propped up against 
the entrance ; no chimney, the smoke finding its way 
out through the cracks in the sides and roof; no 
floor except the hard beaten earth. 

These houses, which varied in size from build- 
ings as large as a huge barn to a small shack, were 

79 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

usually placed near the sea-shore or on the bank of 
a river. The larger ones usually accommodated a 
number of families, sometimes as many as eight or 
ten, and the building was divided by low partitions 
into sections for each family. 

Besides this type of house they constructed for 
winter use an underground hut, usually spoken of 
as a " keekwillie house " — " keekwillie " being 
Chinook for deep or underground. A deep pit was 
dug in the ground and stout poles were placed lean- 
ing together like a tepee, with a hole at the centre. 
The earth was heaped up around and upon the top, 
very much as eastern farmers cover their potato 
pits. The hole in the top was the only doorway, 
the only passageway for light, and the only opening 
for the smoke to escape. 

A notched pole was placed up the side of the roof 
and another protruded from the interior through 
the opening in the top. By these two poles the occu- 
pants passed in and out of this dwelling. You had 
to be careful, if your clothing was made of any 
inflammable material, in passing through the open- 
ing in the top, so close was it to the fire built below. 

In olden days whole villages lived in these keek- 
willie or sweat houses during the winter, which 
were united by underground passages. In times of 
war they were thus able to find shelter from an 
enemy by passing from one to another. 

In the summer camps the people lived under shel- 
ters made of large rush-mats, open on one side. In 
front of this opening the camp-fire was built. Of 
course, now many of them live in canvas tents or 

80 



HOUSES, CLOTHING, CRUEL CUSTOMS 

* sail-houses," as they call them, " sail " being the 
Chinook equivalent for cloth of any kind. Many 
others of them live in small frame houses. 

Speaking of the mats, these were very skilfully 
made by the women from the large bulrushes which 
line the river banks. These were dried and then 
woven together with a native twine made from the 
inner bark of the cedar, or wild wiry grass. These 
mats were a very useful commodity, for besides 
being used to form a shelter, they were sometimes 
laid in several thicknesses and made a very com- 
fortable bed. 

Tools. 
In olden times the An-ko-me-nums had tools for 




all purposes peculiar to themselves. The Stone Age 
came down to later times among this people. Trees 

81 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

were felled and split and canoes were shaped by 
means of axes which were made of stone, carved 
into shape and notched. Around this notch was 
fastened a rawhide thong or cedar withe, attached 
to a handle. To assist in splitting the cedar logs 
wedges of wood, horn or bone were used. And in 
order to prevent the wooden wedge from splitting, 
withes from cedar boughs were firmly tied around 
its top. Planks from two to five feet wide were split 
out of large trees by means of these stone hammers 
and wedges. 

Their boards were planed, as were their canoes, 
with chisels and adzes made of jade, a beautiful 
dark green stone, of a nature similar to flint, which 
was found in large boulders in the bed of the Fraser 
and other rivers. Later these adzes were made 
from old files provided by the trading companies. 

Hammers made of stone and shaped something 
like a pestle, and stone mortars for crushing berries 
and mixing food, were among their implements. 

They had paint pots of stone, pipes made of slate 
or wood, needles of various sizes made of wood or 
bone, knives of slate and granite, besides spear- 
points and arrow-heads of flint and quartz. 

Clothing and Ornaments. 

In early days, on some parts of the Coast, the 
clothing of the people was made from cedar bark. 
This was prepared by taking the inner bark of the 
great cedar, soaking it in fresh water until it was 
completely soft, and then beating it on a plank with 
an instrument made of bone or very hard wood hav- 

82 



HOUSES, CLOTHING, CRUEL CUSTOMS 

ing grooves and ridges. It was then separated, the 
soft parts being parcelled out into threads or skeins. 
These were laid in the sun to bleach, or were dyed 
black or red, as suited their taste, the natural color 
being pale yellow. 

These threads were woven into rough cloth, 
which was made up for women into a long, rough 
garment, without sleeves, tight around the neck and 
tied sometimes with a string of the same material 
around the waist. For men they made a cape with 
a hole in it for the head ; it would come down and 
protect the breast and shoulders. The same material 
was used for towels or for packing the baby's bed. 
The ordinary breech-clout was made out of this 
cedar cloth. 

Later the hair of the dog and mountain goat's 
wool were spun together and woven into blankets 
on simple native looms. Some of these blankets 
were very beautiful, with patterns all their own, 
representing, as in the case of the northern tribes, 
the totems of the wearers. Of course, in later years 
the common garment was the " Indian blanket," 
sold by the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Chiefs and people of high rank wore the skins, 
of animals, some of which were dressed and tanned 
by native methods. Some were clothed in the most 
beautiful furs — the priceless sea-otter, the bear, and 
other animals — and were thus recognized as great 
chiefs or great hunters. 

All were fond of ornaments, such as ear-rings, 
necklaces, bracelets, finger rings, ankle bangles and 
nose jewels. Some wore large rings in their noses, 

83 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

while slaves often had a long stick through the hole 
in their noses. There was also the remarkable lip 
button or labret, worn by perforating the lower lips 
of the females, which insertion was enlarged with 
increasing age, from one to three and a half inches 
long and from one-quarter to one and a half inches 
wide. These latter were only worn by people of 
high rank. 

Long shells like goose quills, called toothpick 
shells, about three inches long, taken from the salt 
water, were much used as ornaments. They were 
strung together and sold by the fathom, five 
fathoms being reckoned the price of a slave. 

The men of nearly all the Coast tribes had the 
lobe of the ear perforated, this being done in early 
childhood, and frequently in olden times you would 
see them with large rings or large pieces of abalone 
shell hanging to their noses. 

Ear-rings were worn in a series of perforations 
in the lobe of the ear. We have seen them with 
three and four smaller pieces of abalone shell at 
the upper part of the ear, or a very large one at the 
lower part of the ear. At a more recent date these 
were replaced by ear-rings of silver and gold of 
various designs, like their white friends. 

Painting and Tattooing. 

Tattooings were sometimes observed on their 

wrists and arms and breasts, but the custom was 

not so general as with the northern tribes. 

They, however, in common with other Indian 

84 



HOUSES, CLOTHING, CRUEL CUSTOMS 

peoples, were accustomed to the use of paints in 
decorating the body. They had their own native 
paints, some made from ground stone, others from 
a certain kind of clay. They had also very strong 
dyes from sundry kinds of roots and bark; also an 
oily substance from salmon roe, as well as several 
kinds of gum from trees. 

In dressing they painted the eyebrows black, like 
a half moon, the face sometimes checked in small 
red squares, arms and legs and part of the body red. 
Sometimes but half the face was painted red in 
squares, and sometimes black. At other times the 
whole face was as black as tar. Some also covered 
the face with a quantity of bear's grease, almost an 
eighth of an inch thick, or laid it on in ridges like 
beads in a joiner's work and then painted the ridge 
red. 

They often told us that on a hot day this was to 
keep the sun from burning the face, and in the win- 
ter they claimed it kept the cold, sharp wind from 
cutting or chapping the skin. 

Chiefs and people of rank used a kind of mineral 
or black shining powder, glistening in the sun like 
silver, taken from the rocks. 

The picture of a fierce warrior, almost nude, 
painted up with these striking colors, and brandish- 
ing a knife, stone axe or war-club, and in later years 
armed with a flint-lock musket, was enough to 
terrify the beholder. 

As for the ornamental effect of painting the per- 
son, of course that is a matter of taste with the 
Indian, as with other people. These colors were 

85 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

not easily removed in washing, and often had to 
wear off. 

Strange and Cruel Customs. 
At one time the Indians were very fond of bath- 
ing, entering the water once a day or oftener. In 
the early morning they would arouse the children 
and drive them into the water for their morning 
bath. Even when the ice had formed on the river, 
they were compelled to break the ice and plunge in. 
The little chaps naturally shrank from this rigorous 
treatment, and their parents, with what seemed little 
feeling, would take the needle-covered branches of 
the spruce and whip them until they obeyed. It is 
safe to say that only the hardier ones survived. 

Flattening the Head. 

Many of the southern tribes of the British Colum- 
bia Coast were in the habit of deforming the heads 
of their children. This custom resembles that of 
foot-binding among the Chinese, and other similar 
barbarous practices common to most heathen 
peoples. The Flatheads compressed the foreheads 
of their little ones by means of boards or a hard 
cushion, or even a flat stone. The child was laid in 
its little basket cradle or placed upon a narrow piece 
of board, to one end of which another board was 
attached with thongs. The upper board was pulled 
tight down over the child's forehead, and thus the 
head was pressed gradually out of shape and the 
forehead flattened back. 

In the northern part of Vancouver Island they 

use a circular bandage, whereby the skull acquires 

86 




o 



I- 



HOUSES, CLOTHING, CRUEL CUSTOMS 

an extraordinary length and forms what is called 
the sugar-loaf head. Some of the natives of the 
west coast of the island placed a bandage over the 
forehead of the child and then laid a flat stone upon 
this, thus securing the necessary deformation. 

The effect of this pressure was to stupefy the 
senses and to crush out the intellect. Many of the 
children died under this cruel practice. 

Again and again I have expostulated with them, 
and often have whipped out my knife and cut the 
cords which bound the little sufferer, only to incur 
the anger of the parents, who themselves were 
bound by inexorable custom. 

Other Cruel Practices. 

The heathen were neglectful and even cruel to 
their old people. They have been known to leave 
them on islands to starve to death, and when sick 
they were often left in places where one would 
hardly leave a dog. 

When a woman became a mother, and needed the 
most tender care, she was put outside in a cold, 
wretched place, all alone, and there had to remain 
for weeks. 

Oh, cruel, cruel heathenism, how much shame 

and misery and suffering must be laid at thy door ! 

But, thank God ! the power of the everlasting Gospel 

has wrought a marvellous change in many of these 

particulars, and now something of the love and 

sympathy which marks other Christian lives is 

expressed in the dealings of the people with one 

another. 

87 



CHAPTER X. 
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

" Thus it is our daughters leave us, 
Those we love, and those who love us ! 
Just when they have learned to help us, 
When we are old and lean upon them, 
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers, 
With his flute of reeds, a stranger 
Wanders piping through the village, 
Beckons to the fairest maiden, 
And she follows where he leads her, 
Leaving all things for the stranger!" 

— Longfellow's " Hiawatha." 

An An-ko-me-num courtship, and the marriage 
which followed, differed entirely from that with 
which we are most familiar. One heathen wedding, 
which I witnessed early in my stay at Nanaimo, 
very perfectly illustrates the difference between 
their customs and ours. 

Chief Tsil-ka-mut lived in a large old heathen 
house about 1 50 feet long by 40 feet wide. Tsil-la- 
meah, his eldest daughter, by his eldest wife — for 
he had two wives — was a modest Indian maiden, 
who had been strictly kept, as a chief's daughter, 
according to heathen law. 

On one occasion, when one of H. M. ships of war 

was anchored in the harbor, a number of bluejackets 

were allowed out on leave. They filled up with 

liquor in the town, and then marched down through 

88 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 

the woods, over a mile, to the Indian village, cutting 
clubs as they went. When they reached the village 
they shouted and swore and acted like demons, and 
began to drive the people out of their houses and 
insult their young women. 

Among them were two professedly petty officers, 
who made their way into Tsil-ka-mut's big house, 
where his daughter, Tsil-la-meah, was busy with 
her needle, while her mother sat near her on the 
floor working at a mat. These rough men sat 
down, one on each side of the innocent maid, and 
began to push her. The child, for she was little 
more than that at the time, became afraid of them, 
and the anxious mother cried, " Klata-wah ! klata- 
wah!" ("Go away! go away!"). They paid no 
attention and still persisted in their insults, until 
finally the mother, in her own language, called out 
for the chief, who was at the other end of the long 
house, taking a meal with some of his clan. Leap- 
ing over the floor Tsil-ka-mut dashed around the 
corner of the partition which enclosed his family 
room, and in a trice was facing these ruffians. 
Immediately he shouted, pointing to the door, 
"Klata-wah! klata-wah!" which in this tone of 
voice meant " Get out, and hurry about it." 

" Oh, no ! oh, no !" said the poor fools, grinning 
like gaping idiots as they spoke. 

With that he seized a paddle and smashed it over 
their heads, repeating in a towering voice, " Klata- 
wah! klata-wah!" 

Then these big fellows, who had been sent out 
with others from the Home Land to help keep peace 

89 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

among the Indians, scampered out of the house and 
away without further ceremony. 

It was well that a paddle was the only weapon 
to hand. For had Tsil-ka-mut used his old musket, 
or something heavier, they might have paid the 
penalty with their lives. And then the cry would 
have gone forth, " Those desperate, savage Indians, 
they should all of them be shot." Unfortunately, 
many of them have been shot for more paltry 
reasons than that. 

It is of the courtship and marriage of this same 
Tsil-la-meah, at that time a pupil in our school, that 
I now propose to write. 

A young chief who lived some distance to the 
south made his way overland to her village, and 
began what seemed to be an old-fashioned heathen 
courtship. No one knew of his arrival till he was 
found one morning in the great long house, sitting 
by a post on the cold earthen floor with a blanket 
around him. 

On my rounds to gather up the children for 
school I noticed this stranger, a slender young man, 
sitting there, looking very lonely. I asked who he 
was, and they told me he was a young prince from 
Qua-mit-son, some fifty miles away, and that he 
had come to see if he would be accepted as a suitor 
for Chief Tsil-ka-mut's daughter. He had to 
remain there three days and three nights, according 
to custom, and if during that time he was invited to 
partake of food with the family of the young prin- 
cess his way was all clear ; if not, he could go about 

his business. 

90 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 

However, during the last day he was invited to 
eat with the family. We do not know that he had 
anything to say to the young maiden regarding the 
state of his affections, or whether he ever saw her 
during his stay there, but as soon as he had proved 
himself welcome to the family he was off overland 
to his home. 

Some months after this we heard that a whole 
tribe of people were to arrive early one morning 
from the south, and that Chief Tsil-ka-mut's 
daughter was going to be married to the young 
chief who had been there courting. The whole vil- 
lage was in excitement, when presently some thirty 
canoes were sighted rounding a point about two 
miles away, and a great cracking of musketry 
announced the coming of the strangers. On they 
came, beating their drums and singing the marriage 
song as they drew near the village. 

In the lead came a band of the principal chiefs, 
old warriors and musicians, gorgeously painted and 
feathered up, standing upon a platform which was 
built on top of two large canoes lashed together. 
In their midst was the young man himself, well 
dressed in European style. The singing continued 
till they got to the beach. By this time the crowd 
of villagers were all thronged around the canoes. 
The young man and the painted warriors stepped 
out and quietly walked to the chief's house, all the 
rest following. The villagers busied themselves 
packing up the visitors' goods and hauling their 
canoes high up on the beach. The day was then 
spent in resting and feasting. 

91 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

In the evening a great reception was given, when 
all the great dancers of the Nanaimos, by their 
dancing and song, welcomed the strangers. Feast- 
ing and dancing were now the order for several 
days. 

Finally the day of departure arrived. Early in 
the morning the whole village was astir, and we 
were told that now Tsil-la-meah was to be married. 
We were curious to see the ceremony, and made 
our way to the chief's house. Drawn up high on the 
bank in front of the house was a very large and 
beautiful new canoe, gaily painted with their old 
Indian paints, the bow and stern carved and orna- 
mented in colors with animal and bird-like designs. 

Inside the house we found crowds of people, all 
painted up, dancing and scrambling for goods. A 
great number of mountain goat skins were gath- 
ered at one end of the house. Busy hands tied them 
together in a long string, and when all was ready 
some of the young men took hold of one end and 
rushed the long string of robes down through the 
middle of the house. Immediately an excited 
scramble followed, visitors and villagers each striv- 
ing for a share. Sometimes half a dozen men, get- 
ting hold of a skin, would tear it in pieces, eager to 
get their part of the prize. At other times, when 
several were good-humoredly struggling together 
to secure a skin, a quaint-looking old man came 
along and, brandishing a large knife, would cut 
right between their arms and each man got his part. 

Then followed blankets, calico and other goods, 

92 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 

which were dealt with in the same way, and thus 
went on this scene of pleasure and potlatch. 

Then came another part of the ceremony. The 
Cowichans, the friends of the young man, made 
ready their canoes for departure, and some by the 
side of the canoes and some already seated in them 
joined in singing one of their marriage songs, which 
recounted the great deeds and wealth of the ances- 
tors of the young man, as well as his own wealth 
and good qualities. 

During this time a number of old women attend- 
ants were preparing the young bride for the occa- 
sion. They put on her a number of calico dresses 
and a new bright red blanket, and painted her face in 
the most grotesque-looking manner. Her long flow- 
ing black hair was plaited, and hung away below her 
waist. Attached by a head-strap to her forehead 
and hanging down her back — the way they carry 
their burdens — was a piece of wood, the token that 
her friends never wanted her, as a chief's daughter, 
to carry her own wood. 

All being ready, she was led out by one of the 

women, the others, to the number of six or eight, 

following in single file. Each had a new red blanket 

hanging over her shoulders, the other end held by 

the one behind. And thus they marched out of the 

house towards the new canoe amidst the singing 

and shouting of the Nanaimos. Men piled their 

loads of new blankets into the canoe, and then the 

bride was helped in and seated a little astern of 

mid-ships. And still they piled in blankets all 

around her, until her head was just in sight. Thus 

93 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

several hundred blankets were sent off with her as 
a kind of dowry. 

By this time a great array of canoes were strung 
along the shore, all ready to leave, and hundreds 
of people were crowded in front of the house 
between it and the beach. And now the Nanaimos 
beat their drums and sang their songs, and great 
orations were made by both parties. 

The first orator, who represented the older chief, 
the father of the bride, in loud and boastful tone 
spoke on this wise : " Let all the people in this great 
country know, you people from the south and the 
people from the north, that this young woman is a 
daughter of a great chief ; she and her people have 
been in the line of chiefs for generations. They 
were a great people. All the tribes feared before 
them. And now her father is giving her into the 
hands of you people of the south. Let all the 
Cowichans, the Saanich, the Songees and all the 
people to the south know that this day the young 
chief takes her for his wife. We charge you to 
take great care of her, and warn you that if any- 
thing should happen to her, any of the wild people 
from the north should come and take her, we shall 
look to you, or require her at your hands." 

At once a rough, wild-looking old fellow jumped 
up in one of the canoes which stood out in the 
water and said : " O great chief, we hear what you 
say, but you must remember it is not only the 
Nanaimos who are a great people. Our people, the 
father of this young prince, is a great chief among 
his people. We will try to do as you say. We will 

94 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 

take care of the young princess whom he has taken 
for his wife. She shall be one with us, and we will 
come and see you again." 

Then for a time the most exciting scene 
occurred. Several beautiful new muskets, one after 
another, were thrown ashore, and in a very proud, 
haughty fashion a short speech was made after 
each present, as much as to say, " We'll show you 
Nanaimo people we are not the poor people you 
imagine." 

This aroused the Nanaimos, who ran in turn to 
their different houses, bringing out muskets and 
blankets and either throwing them down towards 
the canoes or handing them to individuals — the 
whole accompanied by a running fire of boastful 
speeches and wild and frantic oratory. 

This ended, the bridegroom called his young men 
to him, and rushing up to the large canoe where 
the young bride sat almost covered with blankets, 
they seized the canoe and with a merry shout gave 
it a heave, when it bounded off the bank into the 
water, some of them holding it back for fear it 
should launch out too far. 

As a parting gift the young man took off his coat 
and hat and gave them to Tsil-ka-mut, who was 
clothed in a blanket only. The gift, it seemed, 
could be of little value, as the young fellow was 
quite slender, while "the old chief looked as large 
again. 

This done the young man sprang into the canoe 

by the side of his bride, and they were man and 

wife. In a moment some ten of his braves followed 

95 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

him, and seizing their paddles swung the big canoe 
out into the bay and the party was off. We on the 
beach shouted and waved our good-byes until they 
rounded the point. 

The Sad State of Heathen Womanhood. 

Polygamy, with all its dreadful misery and 
degradation, was prevalent in former days all along 
the coast. Chee-at-luk, the old king of the Songees, 
commonly known as King Free-zee, it is said had 
fifteen wives. In the interior, also, I met a chief 
who claimed to have fourteen wives. One or two 
of these were the chief or permanent wives, while 
all the rest were treated like slaves, and possibly 
were slaves, purchased and often held as such. 

Years ago, it is said, a man's own sister, or, worse 
still, even his daughter or mother, might be among 
his wives. The more wives he had, the less work 
he would have to do. A great chief is reported to 
have said, " Women are made to labor ; one of them 
can haul as much as two men ; they pitch our tents, 
carry our wood, mend our clothes, and cook our 
food." 

Woman was always the slave or burden-bearer 
until the Gospel came and lifted her into her true 
social position. 

It was a common thing, in those first days of my 
work among them, to see a man with his blanket 
on, painted up in great style, walking along the 
road as if the whole creation belonged to him, while 
a poor woman, with a heavy load of fish or food of 

96 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 

some kind in a basket on her back, trudged along, 
hardly able to bear up under the load, and perhaps 
carrying a baby besides. If you said to the man, 
as I have said again and again, "Take the baby. 
Why don't you help her?" she would say, " Oh, 
let him alone, sir; he is the chief," as much as to 
say, " I am his slave." 

It was very common for men to have from two 
to four wives, and there was often a great deal of 
jealousy and quarrelling among them. This cus- 
tom worked great injury to many of the young men, 
who could not get wives, and often led them to live 
reckless lives; while many a young woman has 
gone off to ruin for fear she would have to go and 
live with some ill-natured, dirty, lame old fellow 
whom she could never like. 

It is wonderful, when the Gospel light came in 
and the Spirit of God took hold of the people, how 
they themselves commenced to see the evils of this 
custom and immediately endeavored to rectify it. 
It was a matter that could not have been forced 
upon them, but gradually they arranged it. The 
oldest one, perhaps, was put away with an ample 
dowry. Another, who had no family ties, married 
another man who had no wife, and, growing out 
of this system of polygamy, who never had a 
chance to have one. The one whose growing 
family of little ones laid heavy responsibilities upon 
her was usually retained. And thus, by the bless- 
ing of God, this most difficult problem was solved, 

and polygamy was almost entirely done away with. 

97 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

First Christian Marriage. 

Very interesting to me was the first marriage I 
performed among this people. It took place in the 
year 1871, on the Songees reserve, the territory of 
the noted old King Free-zee, opposite Victoria, in 
the home of Amos Shee-hats-ton (our first convert 
in that tribe), which had been used for prayer and 
class-meetings. The couple had been waiting till 
I should be ordained, so as to have it in their own 
language. There were present about twenty of the 
natives, including their teachers. The weather was 
warm and the door wide open, and the contracting 
parties stood with their backs to the door. 

As it was the first marriage I had performed, I 
was a little nervous, and had to keep a close look 
at the book. Just when I reached the point of ask- 
ing the bride, " Wilt thou have this man to be thy 
wedded husband?" I glanced up, and lo! she was 
just slipping out of the door. 

Taking in the situation, and seeing that the 
crowd were looking very serious, I started up sing- 
ing, " Shall we gather at the river," a hymn with 
which they were familiar. 

We had nearly sung it through when she came 
peeping in at the door, as if she had a lingering 
desire to have the thing finished up. So I got hold 
of her hand and drew her towards him, placed her 
hand in his, laid my hand over them both, and held 
on until I had finished the ceremony. 

With this memory before me I have married 
many hundreds since, and never failed to place my 
hand upon theirs, and hold on until the ceremony 
was completed. 98 



CHAPTER XL 
FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES. 

" Those who attempt to reason us out of our follies begin 
at the wrong end, since the attempt naturally presupposes 
us capable of reason." — Goldsmith. 

Nature made bounteous provision for the wants 
of the aboriginal inhabitants of British Columbia. 
The seas and rivers were teeming with fish — salmon 
of several kinds, halibut, cod, and sturgeon, and 
among smaller fish, herring, oolachan, smelts, and 
trout; the beaches and shallows afforded large sea 
crabs, clams, cockles, and oysters. The plains, val- 
leys and mountains abounded in wild animals of 
many kinds — elk, moose, cariboo, deer, mountain 
sheep and goats, bears of different colors, and num- 
erous smaller fur-bearing creatures. The forests, 
the sky and the lakes and streams were alive with 
members of the feathered tribe — swans, geese, ducks 
of several varieties, and, besides all these, the 
Indians were not averse to eating eagles and gulls, 
if necessity demanded. 

Besides laying in large stores of dried meats and 

fish, the natives gathered large quantities of wild 

berries, of which there were several varieties, and 

dried them for their winter supplies. There were 

many other kinds of food, such as the inner bark of 

the spruce tree, many kinds of roots, wild potatoes. 

99 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

wild onions, wild rice, sea-weed, fish, eggs or 
spawn, crab apples and nuts. 

Methods of Cooking. 

The people had three common ways of cooking 
their food: by boiling, steaming, and broiling 
before the fire. 

To cook a quantity of provisions in one of their 
big tubs or boxes — for they had no pots in those 
days — they poured in water sufficient to cook the 
quantity needed, and then red hot stones, lifted 
with a pair of wooden tongs, were dropped in to 
make it boil. When salmon or other fish were to 
be cooked, they usually cut off the heads and tails, 
and kept up the boiling process until all was reduced- 
to a broth, when it was ladled out into dishes or 
long troughs and set before the people. Think of 
seven hundred salmon cooked in this way for a 
single feast! 

To prepare food by steaming, a large fire was 
first kindled on a bed of cobble stones. When the 
wood had burned out, the stones being very hot, 
layers of green grass or sea-weed were laid on the 
top of the stones and kept damp with water. The 
clams, mussels, or other shell fish — if salmon, cod, 
halibut or sturgeon, usually only the heads and tails 
were thus prepared — whatever they wished to cook, 
were placed upon the grass, a little water was 
poured upon the top, and the whole was closely 
covered with mats, leaves, or boughs to keep in the 
steam. This is much the best means of cooking 

100 



FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES 

clams or other shell fish. They are delicious when 
cooked after this fashion. 

When it was desired to broil the salmon, birds, 
venison or other wild meats, a stick the size of a 
broom handle, about four feet long, was split part 
way down, and the meat or fish was put into the 
split, while little sticks were placed crossways to 
keep the food spread. The stick was then tied at 
the split end, while the other end, already sharp- 
ened, was driven into the ground by the hot camp- 
fire, the flat side being kept towards the fire. The 
oil or gravy was caught in a clam shell or other 
dish and poured back upon the meat while cooking. 
Salmon never tastes better than when cooked in 
this manner. Often when travelling by canoe have 
we had deer, bear or mountain-goat meat, ducks 
or geese, and even porcupine, eagle or gulls, cooked 
in this way. The latter is quite palatable when you 
are worn with travelling and the larder has become 
nearly exhausted. 

Feasts. 

It has been said, " It is always a feast or a famine 
with a native." 

Whether that is true or not, certain it is that the 
natives of the Pacific Coast have a great variety of 
feasts. Indians, wherever you find them, are very 
hospitable to strangers — the travellers and miners 
of this vast country would all testify to this. They 
are most generous, even reckless, with their food. 
If you are invited to a feast among them the food 
is piled up before you, and after having satisfied 

101 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

your appetite you are expected to take away all you 
cannot eat. If the visitor is a chief or important 
person, what he has left is sent home by messenger 
to his family. If he be any ordinary guest, he 
sweeps off what remains — which is usually much 
more than he has eaten — into a corner of his 
blanket or his shirt, and carries it away. If the 
feast be of whale's blubber, porpoise, fish of similar 
kind, or venison, bear or mountain goat, it is cut 
up into slices and strung on a sharp stick, or carried 
in his hand to the rest of his family. 

At a big feast there are always several masters 
of ceremonies and a number of waiters in attend- 
ance. These never sit down while the eating is 
going on, though often a feast will last for six or 
seven hours, having as many courses. There are 
numerous small, every-day feasts where neighbors 
call upon each other in a happy, social way. 

One of the greatest offences to an Indian is to 
refuse to accept an invitation which he has given 
you to eat with him and his friends. 

Music and Dancing. 

With most feasting is usually associated dancing 
and other merriment. 

The readiness with which the Indians pick up our 

beautiful hymn tunes and learn to play our musical 

instruments has been remarked. Indeed, these 

people are naturally very musical, and in their 

heathen state were passionately fond of singing 

their own native melodies. Of songs they had a 

great variety : war songs, marriage songs, songs for 

102 



FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES 

feasts and public gatherings, mourning songs for 
the dead, songs when the fish came, dancing songs, 
canoe songs, and many others. When we asked 
the old dance-song maker where they got their 
music, he replied : 

" We get it from the wind in the trees, from the 
waves on the sea-shore, from the rippling stream, 
from the mountain side, from the birds, and from 
the wild animals. 

As for musical instruments, we are all familiar 
with the simple Indian drum, made by stretching a 
deerskin tightly over a hoop. Besides this they 
used as a drum a big square box, painted in dif- 
ferent colors, with figures of birds and animals 
upon it. 

When the drummer was at work crowds would 
accompany him, beating time with sticks upon 
boards. The sound was weird in the extreme, if 
heard at the dead of night, coupled with the shouts 
of the heathen dancers. 

Besides the drums were rattles of various shapes, 
used by the chiefs and conjurers, and pipe whistles — 
indeed, whistles of many kinds, imitating birds and 
animals — some of which were used by the hunters 
in pursuit of game. 

With much of their music is associated their 

pagan dancing. There are professional dancers 

among the tribes, who as a rule are identified with 

the clans of the medicine men. The heathen dances 

are very fascinating to the heathen mind, and in 

nothing is the " backsliding " of the Indian more 

noticeable than in his return to the dance. 

103 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

At the dancing season certain persons become 
possessed, or as the An-ko-me-nums say, ; ' the 
you-an, or dance-spirit, is on them." They dream 
dreams and see visions, and move about in a hyp- 
notic state, unable, or at least declining, to work, 
and roaring out at intervals a sort of mournful 
sobbing, " Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh." Then they go from 
house to house, hunting up every kind of food they 
can get hold of, and gorging themselves many times 
a day. At night these dancers, all daubed and plas- 
tered with grease and paint, would gather in the 
large houses, where the people were assembled, and 
work themselves up into a frenzy, prancing up and 
down and round about, performing numerous con- 
tortions. Then they would break out in song, or in 
monotonous recitation relate their dreams and 
visions and tell many weird tales. Then round and 
round, and up and down again, they would prance, 
until they dropped from sheer exhaustion, or fell, 
perhaps, into the fire, and another took their place. 
All this time the onlookers watched and listened to 
the chanting and the story, or screamed and 
pounded in frantic accompaniment to the dancing. 

The heathen dance is certainly demoralizing, and, 
like everything of heathenism, is of the devil. 

White Man's Dance vs. Indian Dance. 

Early in my stay at Nanaimo four or five of the 

leading chiefs came to me with the proposition that 

if I would allow them to go on with their potlatch- 

ing and wild dancing every day in the week, they 

would come to church and rest on Sunday. 

104 



FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES 

" No; you had better stop all your heathenism," 
was my answer. 

Nothing daunted, they came back again later. 
Now they would all be good on Sabbath and stand 
by me if they could dance. It was not very bad, 
and they had to keep up a little of what their 
fathers told them. And if I would not speak 
against it or pray against it they would all be good 
soon and would have all their children go to school. 

" No, I cannot have anything to do with the old 
way, the dance, the potlatch, etc., it is all bad," I 
said. 

Then they whispered to each other, " Oh, he is 
like a post; you cannot move him." 

To give an idea of the scenes witnessed on these 
dancing occasions : Old Sna-kwe-multh, a man who 
had been taken a slave by some northern tribe, but 
who had found his way home, wished to demon- 
strate his bravery. At a great feast he came rush- 
ing in half naked and danced before the people. 
As his frenzy increased he slashed at his thighs 
with some kind of sharp instrument, and then with 
both hands caught up his own blood and drank it, 
to prove himself a brave. 

A number of white men, who had been witnesses 
of the shameful scene, ran out and cried, ' The 
devil is in the man." 

I denounced the custom and pleaded with them 
to give it up. Speaking to the old Chief Squen-es- 
ton, I said, " You must stop it. It is of the devil." 

" Oh," said he, " the white man's dance worse 

than the Indian's dance." 

105 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" How do you make that out?" I said. 

" Oh, Indian man, alone, dance all round the 
house and sit down. And then Indian woman she 
dance all round and she sit down. But white man 
take another man's wife and hug her all round the 
house." 

What could I say to the argument? What would 
you have said? 

POTLATCHING. 

Of the many evils of heathenism, with the excep- 
tion of witchcraft, the potlatch is the worst, and 
one of the most difficult to root out. 

At one time its demoralizing influence was so 
manifest that the Government passed a law pro- 
hibiting it, but this excellent law was seldom pro- 
perly enforced. 

" Potlatch " — the word is from the Chinook and 
means " to give." Literally the idea is the giving 
away of everything a man possesses to his friends. 
In return he gets nothing except a little flattery, a 
reputation for generosity, and poverty. 

" Tlaa-nuk " is the An-ko-me-num word, and it 
suggests something more than " a giving," or a 
feast, or an entertainment, or a ceremony, for it is 
all of these and more. It is a system of tribal gov- 
ernment which enforces its tyrannical rule upon all, 
and overrides all other laws of the nation or the 
individual. 

Its outward manifestation of the heathen feast 
and dance, with the giving of gifts to all present, is 

106 



FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES 

bad enough, but this is as nothing to the unseen 
influence behind it all. 

The potlatch relates to all the life of the people, 
such as the giving of names, the raising into social 
position, their marriages, deaths and burials. 

A man desires, or thinks himself entitled to, some 
coveted position, property or distinction, and for 
years, perhaps, makes preparation to secure it. This 
can only be done by the law of " tlaa-nuk " (pot- 
latch), and so when ready he calls together from 
far and near his friends and relatives, when, after 
much feasting and dancing and speech-making, he 
gets up on a high platform and proceeds to give 
away all that he possesses. 

The ambition of an Indian to be thought greater, 
richer and more influential than any of his neigh- 
bors leads him not only to give away a large part 
of his goods — which, as a matter of fact, he expects 
returned with interest on some future occasion, at 
another such gathering — but wantonly to destroy 
very much in such a manner that it can never be 
restored. For instance, think of a man taking a 
fine large canoe, valued at, perhaps, one hundred 
and fifty dollars, and smashing it into pieces ; or of 
another seizing a number of beautiful new guns or 
rifles and bending and breaking them so that they 
would be utterly useless ; or of another setting fire 
to piles of food and of goods. Some few years ago, 
at one such gathering, the poor, foolish creatures 
took rolls of new bills, the product of their sum- 
mer's work, and threw them into the fire. 

I knew a man at Nanaimo who, together with his 

107 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

wives and children, worked for years saving and 
getting together much property; and then a great 
potlatch was given, and everything went, to the last 
stitch of clothing, and he and his family were left 
practically naked to face the winter, without any 
provisions. His children nearly starved, while he 
contracted a cold which led to consumption, from 
which he died. 

Some time ago it was rumored that the law 
against the potlatch was to be repealed. This drew 
a strong protest from several quarters, among them 
from some of the Indians themselves. 

About that time the following letter, which 
explains itself, appeared in the local press, signed 
by an Indian whose identity was vouched for by a 
gentleman who knew him well : 

" Having heard that in the last session of the 
provincial parliament a resolution was passed ask- 
ing Dominion Government to reconsider the pot- 
latch question with a view to repealing section 114, 
and that there is to be an inquiry as to the evils 
of the potlatch, we should like to tell the public 
what the potlatch is. 

" Really and truly it is destruction to life and 

property, as we shall show. The first is that the 

women go from home to other places for immoral 

purposes, to get money or blankets to give away, 

or potlatch, as people call it. The second is that 

they sell their daughters to other men as soon as 

possible, sometimes twelve or thirteen years old, 

marriage they call it ; the people do not care so long 

as they get blankets to potlatch with. And the 

108 



FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES 

third is that they hate each other so much because 
of their trying to get one above the other in rank, 
as it is according to how many times they potlatch 
that they get the rank, and keep it, too. If they 
could they would even poison one another. Even 
now they think they kill one another by witchcraft, 
with intent to kill, and they believe that they do 
kill. A man does not care for any relatives when 
the potlatch is in question. The potlatch is their 
igod; they will sacrifice everything to it — life, pro- 
perty, relatives, children, or anything, must go for 
him to be a 'tyee' (chief) in the potlatch. 

" A man after giving a potlatch will sit down, 
his children, too, without knowing where he is 
going to get his food and clothes, as he has given 
away everything, and he has borrowed half of it, 
for which he has to pay back double. And another 
thing is, when they are mad with one another they 
will break canoes or tear blankets or break a valu- 
able copper, to shame their opponent. The pot- 
latch is one fight, with quarrelling and hating one 
another. 

" And another is the desecration of the dead. 

The hamatsa, or medicine man, when he first 

comes from the woods, carries a dead body in his 

arms, professing to have lived on such things when 

in the woods, and as soon as the hamatsa comes in 

the house the other hamatsas all get up and go and 

tear the body to pieces among them like dogs; 

besides all this they bite the arms of one another; 

and the other thing is that when a man gets ill he 

109 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

thinks he is witchcrafted, and then his relatives will 
go and take the dead body that they think he is fixed 
with : they cut and mutilate it to undo the work 
that they think has been done to him. We have 
just heard of such a case from Kurtsis, of a 
woman's dead body having been taken out and 
cut, to undo the work that they think has been 
done to a certain man. All these things are 
pure facts, and we are prepared to prove them if 
need be, and could tell other evils, but we are afraid 
of tiring the public." 

Gambling. 

The Indians are passionately fond of gambling. 
In olden times they gambled, not with cards, but 
usually with round wooden pins about three inches 
long, or with shells and pebbles. 

The gamblers would sit opposite each other on 
the grass or in the large houses, and a great crowd 
would gather on both sides, making a rattling noise 
with short sticks on boards, and singing to work 
themselves up for luck, or " power," as they called 
it. The gambling would go on night and day, 
almost week in and week out, until they had not a 
shred of clothes left. Money, muskets, canoes, 
horses, and sometimes the houses over their heads, 
they would stake on a chance. 

The story is told of one old man among the Kling- 

gets who gambled away everything he had. Then, 

with the hope that he would have a lucky day some 

110 



FOODS, FEASTS AND FOLLIES 

time, he put himself down and gambled away for 
days, still losing, until his wife, seeing that he was 
" going," persuaded him to stop. She had to pay 
two hundred blankets to buy him back. 

The gambling passion still lives with them, and 
now some of them have adopted the methods of 
their white brothers — they were always fond of 
imitating him, even to their own hurt — and are 
going deeper and deeper into sin. 



113 



CHAPTER XII. 
NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS. 

" Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, 
« Who have faith in God and Nature, 

Who believe, that in all ages 
Every human heart is human, 
That in even savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings, 
For the good they comprehend not, 
That the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness, 
Touch God's right hand in that darkness 
And are lifted up and strengthened. . . ." 

— " Hiawatha." 

The An-ko-me-nums, like most of the Indians of 
British Columbia, were spirit worshippers. First 
of all, they believed in a great Chief Spirit, who 
created all things and was all-wise and all-powerful, 
and ruled over them for good, but who was not 
actively concerned for them, and whom they never 
called upon except in cases of great difficulty or 
distress. 

Then they believed in a multitude of lesser spirits, 
who were in most cases evilly disposed towards 
them. These inhabited certain mountains and head- 
lands and rocky, dangerous points, around which 
the waves raged and tossed their frail canoes, and 
sometimes upset them. A swirling eddy, a danger- 
ous rapid, a lonely lake in the mountains, a steep 

precipice where perhaps at some time or other one 

112 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

of their people had met with disaster and possibly 
death, was the abode of a " Stlaw-la-kum," or evil 
spirit. 

They prayed a great deal to the sun, to the 
moon, to the Great Being who gave them all the 
fish and food, or to the spirit whom they believed 
might be responsible for any impending danger. 
They were often found in the woods praying. 
Hunters would pray and fast for days in the moun- 
tains, bathing themselves and performing certain 
exercises, in order to be successful hunters. They 
would pray, while fishing, for a successful catch. 
And for weeks before going on a war expedition 
they would fast and pray and bathe and paint them- 
selves in preparation for the undertaking. 

Food and drink were often thrown on the fire 
as an offering to the unknown Divinity, while the 
ascending smoke bore the prayers of the poor blind 
worshippers onward to the Great Chief above. 

Speaking of this, one of our native preachers 
says : " My grandmother in the early morning used 
to kindle a fire as she sat on the river bank. When 
it was a clear, quiet morning and the smoke would 
ascend, as it seemed, straight up to the land above, 
she would say, as she prayed for more food or for 
protection from sickness or trouble, ' Now our 
prayers will be answered.' But if the wind blew 
the smoke about, she would say it was no use pray- 
ing, as such prayers were useless." 

Out on the water, with the tempest threatening, 
they were accustomed to turn around and whistle 
and wave their hands to the wind, to keep it away, 

113 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

and when it grew stormy they would pray to the 
mighty wind. Crossing the Gulf of Georgia on one 
occasion in a big storm, the old heathen captain and 
his wife, with whom we voyaged, prayed most 
appealingly, " Oh, you big storm, don't you drown 
us; you are so strong and we are so weak; don't 
you make such a rough sea. Why should we go 
down ? We are all dirty, our clothes are dirty, we 
are very dirty; if you take us down we shall dirty 
your clear waters, they are so clear and blue. Don't 
have us dirty your beautiful waters." 

The south men, as well as the north, would throw 
out food and even clothes as a sacrifice to appease 
the storm. 

When becalmed on a fair day the conjurer or 
" windmaker " would volunteer to raise the wind. 
He would begin by whistling and waving the hand, 
and then praying to the Spirit of the locality. 
Should a light breeze spring up they would shout 
and hurrah because they had brought the wind. 

Of their traditions we have not much to say. In 
common with many other peoples, they had legends 
of the creation and of the deluge. Their stories of 
the flood are very local in coloring, and usually 
gather around a certain mountain peak, the highest 
in their immediate vicinity. The legend of the thun- 
der bird is one which is repeated in varied forms 
all up and down the coast. The Nanaimos told 
how the thunder was made up between two moun- 
tains. Between two large rocks, near the shores of 
a little mountain lake, some great birds which made 
the thunder had their nest. Then the little thunders 

114 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

ail came out, and they with the big thunders clapped 
their wings; then the roll and roar of the thunder 
could be heard echoing through the hills. 

Death and Burial. 

The An-ko-me-nums believed in a future existence, 
and placed upon the graves the toys and trinkets of 
the children, the weapons and belongings of their 
braves, the canoe or horse of the chief, which they 
thought would be of service to the former owner in 
the land to which he had gone. 

They buried their dead in various ways. There 
are evidences that in times long past they put many 
of them in rocky tombs and hid them from their 
enemies. During times of war they buried them in 
large pits, which were covered with ashes, and huge 
mounds of shells were heaped on the top. At 
Comox, on Vancouver Island; Musqueam, near 
Eburne, at the mouth of the Fraser; at Port 
Hammond, and other places, where these mounds 
existed and have been opened, human skulls and 
bones have been found in large numbers. 

Fifty years ago they enclosed the bodies of the 
dead in boxes and placed them upon a scaffold, some 
ten or twelve feet high, to keep them out of the way 
of animals. In still later times they placed them on 
the ground and built little houses over them. 
To-day they are buried in the earth, after the Chris- 
tian fashion. 

Such fear had they of death that the dead were 

not kept very long, but were placed in a box and 

hurried out of the way as soon as possible. They 

115 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

were particularly cruel and indifferent to their old 
people, even placing them in their boxes before they 
were quite dead. 

I recall the case of a poor old man at Nanaimo 
who had been sick for some time. I called one day 
at the house and did not find him on the miserably 
dirty old cot. I then asked his son, a heathen, a 
chief, and past middle age himself, where the old 
man was. " He is in that box," he replied, at the 
same time pointing to a native cedar box, about 
eighteen inches square and two feet deep, made 
without a nail, and bound with cedar withes. 

I went to the box, and opening it I found the poor 
fellow, where they had placed him, according to 
custom, crowded in and doubled up, his head 
between his knees, but still alive. I had him taken 
out at once, but he died the next day. 

Some time ago, on the west coast, a man who had 
been very sick, and whom they expected to die, was 
thus buried alive. His legs were broken and his 
poor body was jammed into a box, and it was put 
away on an island. A woman picking berries heard 
the man groan, and with considerable grit for an 
Indian woman went and opened the box and let him 
out. He is still living, though as a result of his hor- 
rible experience he is compelled to make his way 
about as best he may on all fours. 

Did Not Know He Was Dead. 

Several years ago smallpox raged along the coast 
and swept off many of the Indians as well as the 
whites. The city and government at Victoria 

116 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

appointed certain white grave-diggers to bury the 
numerous corpses found upon the beach, among the 
trees, in huts and in canoes. 

In many cases the grave-diggers found poor crea- 
tures almost, but not altogether, dead; they knew 
they would be fit for burial soon, and did not care 
to spend time waiting for the last gasp. It is said 
they were taking one poor fellow off to the grave, 
but he objected on the very proper ground that he 
was not dead yet. He was told to shut up, as he 
was dead, but too delirious to comprehend the fact. 
So they carefully placed him under the sod to await 
the resurrection morn. 

Rising from the Grave. 

The coal company at Nanaimo were building a 
wharf from a point in the harbor, and paid for the 
removal of a number of Indian bodies which had 
been buried near the spot. New graves were dug 
on a little side hill, and to these the remains were 
transferred. The holes, however, were quite shal- 
low, owing to the presence of a clay hard-pan under- 
neath. Next day a great outcry was made in the 
camp, and intense excitement prevailed, for most of 
the boxes had risen up and had come out of the 
graves. We went down to discover the cause of 
the disturbance, and what had seemed to the poor 
people so strange and uncanny had been caused by 
the heavy rain of the night before filling the shallow 
graves and floating out what they contained. It 
took some time to quiet the fears of the people. 
8 117 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

The men who do anything in any way in the dig- 
ging of the grave or the handling of the body are 
paid excessively for their services. This may be 
due, in part, to their horrible fear of the dead. 

Mourning for the Dead. 

The Indian mother grieves for her children with 
the same intensity of feeling that characterizes her 
white sister. After the burial she will return to the 
grave in the early morning and weep bitterly. She 
often continues this for days at a time. She wails 
and calls up the looks of the little one, its acts and 
words. She will carry the clothes and playthings 
to the little grave, and cry and talk away to her lost 
darling, and pathetically plead for its return. 

There is, however, a kind of professionalism 
about a great deal of their mourning for the dead. 
When a chief or leading person had passed away 
women were accustomed to rush into the house 
from all parts of the village. Perhaps on their way 
there they might be chatting and laughing about 
trifles, but as soon as they got near the house where 
the dead lay, they would commence rubbing their 
hands down their faces, and really seem to pump up 
their tears, for before they were fairly seated the 
tears were flowing, while they wailed and told all 
the good qualities of the dead. 

After this had gone on for some time, someone 

belonging to the house would hand around a dish 

or basket containing water. The crying then ceased, 

and dipping their fingers in the water they bathed 

118 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

faces and hands, and received the strips of calico 
or clothes of the deceased, which was their reward 
for their weeping. 

The Witch-Doctor. 

The medicine-man, or witch-doctor, that demon 
among heathen peoples, held sway among the 
An-ko-me-nums when I first went to the Coast. 

The shaman, or medicine-man, is the representa- 
tive of the grossest features of paganism. He has 
wielded, and still wields to some extent, a marvel- 
lous influence over the people, because of the super- 
natural powers which they believe him to possess. 

He professes to have acquired his power by long 
months of retirement in the mountains or beside 
some lonely lake, where he fasted and prayed and 
held converse with the spirits and with nature. 

Returning, he practises certain magical rites, and 
by this means is able, so he claims, to heal the sick 
and raise the dead and look into the future, and 
even cause the death of many who may oppose his 
magical powers. 

The tyranny of this wretched despot and the 
awful absurdity of his miserable pretensions, 
together with his fiendishly bitter opposition to 
everything that is good, leads him to be feared and 

hated. 

Their method of treating disease was not by 
means of medicine. It was left to the old women of 
the tribe really to administer such simple remedies 
as they might be acquaintd with— poultices, lotions, 
emetics, purgatives, and such-like. The witch-doctor 

119 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

preyed upon the superstitions of the people, and by 
his conjurer's rites deceived and beguiled them. 

When called in, in case of sickness, he would 
shake his rattle and work himself up to a frenzy, 
scream and howl, and if it was a case of fever he 
would rattle away for hours. If there was some 
fixed pain, he would grab hold of the chest or fore- 
head or place where the pain was said to be, and 
then get down and suck and squeeze and suck away 
until the blood came through the skin. Then repeat- 
edly spitting the blood into his hands, he would 
shout for his attendants to rattle harder and sing 
louder, " It was coming." Finally he would jump 
and scream or cheer and say he had got it out, and 
then proceed to show a piece of shell, glass, pebble, 
or a nail, which he claimed he had taken from the 
body, and which was the cause of the trouble. 

A cousin of Sallosalton's, a bright youth who had 

attended our school, in whom I had become very 

much interested, was taken very sick with a fever, 

and the conjurer (witch-doctor) was called in. I 

visited him, and saw that the old conjurer's rattling 

and the additional noise of the people beating time 

to his rattle or drum and boards, together with the 

yelling and singing for hours, was only distracting 

the poor boy and making him very much worse. 

I went to the town and consulted the only doctor 

there. He came to see my young friend, and said 

he felt sure that if the medicine were administered 

properly, and we could keep the old conjurer away, 

there was good hope of his recovery. So I told the 

people that we did not want the conjurer there any 

120 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

more, and that they must help me to keep the lad 
quiet. Night after night I sat up in order to admin- 
ister the medicine and keep the old imposter away, 
and thus give him the necessary quiet. But I found 
that secretly during the day, while I was resting, 
they would call in the conjurer again, as his friends 
had more faith in him than in our medicine and 
nursing. 

Several days passed before I discovered their 
doings. But one day I slipped into the house unex- 
pectedly and found the old fellow rattling over him, 
with a number of his friends keeping time with 
sticks on a board, to assist the old imposter, as he 
said, " to get the power." I rushed in and ordered 
him to stop and leave. A day or two after I found 
him again at the same thing, all painted up and 
nearly naked, and partly stretched out upon the body 
of the sick man, howling and rattling away. My 
indignation was aroused, and I said to him, "' li 
you don't stop you'll kill that boy. Leave at once! 
and if you don't I'll bundle you out of the house." 

He saw that I was making for him, when he got 
up and crawled out, saying that he was there by 
invitation. Of course, the father, mother and 
friends, who were responsible, were very much dis- 
gusted at my action. 

I continued my watch by the poor boy for several 
nights, and had the joy of knowing that he was 
trusting in Jesus. However, I was suddenly called 
away to the Fraser River, and, much to my regret, 
had to leave the sick one. After I left they got the 

121 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

conjurer back, and finished their work, for the boy 
died soon afterwards. 

" You Don't Understand My Sick." 

It is lamentable to behold the superstitious dread 
of these people of the power of the witch-doctor to 
do them harm. 

During my stay at Nanaimo a bright, intelligent 
young man, about nineteen years of age, by the 
name of Charlie, attended our school. I missed him 
for some days, and on inquiry learned that he was 
sick. I made my way to the old heathen house 
where he lived, and there found him lying on a 
wretched cot, covered with his old dirty blanket. 

I said, " Charlie, what's the matter?" 

" I am sick, sir," he replied. 

I felt his pulse, made general inquiry, but could 
discover very little the matter with him. Giving 
him some medicine, I told him to " have a strong 
heart," as he would soon be well. 

Two or three days afterwards, on a beautiful 
sunny spring morning, I visited him again, and 
found he was still lying in the same place. I got 
him up and out of the old house into the sunlight, 
but he seemed to grow worse rather than better. 

Finally I said to him one day, " Charlie, what's 
the matter with you? You are not sick!" 

" Oh, you cannot understand my sickness," he 
replied. 

"Where are you sick? What is the matter?" I 

continued. 

122 




One day I slipped in and found the old fellow rattling over him." 

p. i2r 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

" Oh," he said, looking very serious, " white man 
don't understand my sickness." 

" Tell me where your sickness is?" I urged. 

Pulling down his dirty blanket, and putting his 
hand upon his stomach he said, " It is here. An old 
conjurer has made me sick. He has blown some- 
thing into my inside." 

" Oh, nonsense, Charlie!" said I. " It is no such 
thing. No man has power to do that." 

But he shook his head and replied, " Oh, I told 
you, you don't understand my sick. The Indian has 
power, and he is using it on me, and I shall die." 

Day by day I visited the poor boy and tried in 
every way to get him to arouse himself and to go 
out with the rest of the boys. But no, he lay there 
and sickened, and in about six weeks he died. 

I do not believe anything was the matter, except 
his superstitious fear that the old witch-doctor had 
put his spell upon him and was killing him. 

Retaliation for a Supposed Insult. 

If there is a class that deserves severe treatment 
among the Indians it is these miserable reprobates, 
who still are busy preying upon the credulity of the 
people and working incalculable mischief. 

At the present time there are several of these 
imposters among the bands in the Lower Fraser 
Valley. They have been for years a nuisance, the 
priests of paganism and the prophets of evil. 

Their miserable pretensions we have ignored, and 
have left them out, as far as possible, in our social 
gatherings among the people. 

123 



AMONG THE AN-KOME-NUMS 

Several years ago invitations to the wedding of 
two of our young people were sent to many of the 
Indians of the community, these witch doctors alone 
being purposely left out. 

This enraged them so much that they announced 
that they would kill three persons who were at the 
gathering before a year was gone. 

Shortly after one of the little pupils at the Insti- 
tute, who had been ill for some time, died, and they 
immediately claimed credit for the child's death. A 
little later a woman who attended was taken sick 
and also died, and according to the statements of 
the conjurers she was victim number two. 

During the following summer a number of our 
Indians, as usual, went down to the salmon fishing 
at the mouth of the river, among whom was a 
middle-aged chief, one of our most intelligent 
Indians, and, we considered, one of our truest 
Christians. 

Typhoid was epidemic that year at Steveston, and 
this chief was taken down with the fever. 

Dr. Large, our energetic and successful medical 
missionary at Bella Bella, was then at the Fraser 
River for the summer season, and visited and gave 
the chief medical attention. He appeared to improve 
under treatment and bade fair speedily to recover, 
but in an unexplainable manner to the medical man 
the recovery was delayed. He found, on inquiry, 
that the chief was not taking the medicine pre- 
scribed, and had said that he did not think he would 
ever get well. When pressed for his reasons, he 

confessed the belief that he was the third victim of 

124 



NATIVE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS 

the witch-doctors' rage, and that he could not live. 
The missionary reasoned with him, pleaded with 
him, prayed with him, but without avail, and finally 
the poor fellow died, the victim of his own supersti- 
tious fears, upon which the conjurers had worked 
all too successfully. 

We were grieved beyond measure that such a 
noble life had been thus cut short, and that the 
power of superstition and ignorance was still so 
manifest. 

This power of the medicine-man is coupled with 
the Indian's belief in witchcraft. No heathen Indian 
ever dies a natural death, for every sickness or acci- 
dent is due, according to their superstitious view, to 
the evil eye or malign spell of someone who is 
evilly disposed towards them. When calamity or 
sickness comes they immediately apply to the witch- 
doctor to perform his incantations and discover the 
'witch. Sometimes it is an old woman of the tribe, 
whose term of life is now necessarily short; some- 
times it is a slave or a bright girl or boy, and some- 
times a whole family are pointed out as the " guilty 
ones " and doomed to death. The atrocities com- 
mitted by the natives, moved by this dreadful super- 
stition, are numberless and in many cases too dread- 
ful to relate. How fervently we pray that the 
enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit may pene- 
trate the gloom of heathen darkness and forever 
drive out all the nameless horrors which belong to 
paganism. 



125 



CHAPTER XIII. 

STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY, AND THE 
RAVAGES OF FIRE-WATER. 

" Mourn for the lost, — but pray, 
Pray to our God above, 
To break the fell destroyer's sway, 
And show His saving love." 

For hundreds of years the natives of the Pacific 
Coast of British Columbia have been exposed to the 
temptations of the white man's whiskey. The 
traders on ships in those early years thought it to 
their advantage to take a good supply of rum with 
them in the traffic for furs, and the poor people 
became so infatuated with it that while it lasted they 
would not even go out after the pelts. Whether 
it was the awful effects of the whiskey traffic upon 
the natives, or the risk that the Company's servants 
ran in dealing with drunken Indians, or the loss to 
the Company's business due to the condition of the 
natives, we cannot say — perhaps it was all of these 
^but finally Sir George Simpson, the Governor of 
the Hudson's Bay Company, forbade the sale of 
liquor at any of the trading posts. 

Strong drink has been the greatest enemy to the 
Indians of the Coast and one of the greatest diffi- 
culties in the way of Christianizing and civilizing 
them. 

At our first mission station, history has it, a coal 

126 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

mine was sold for a bottle of rum. We are not sure 
just how this occurred, but it is stated that an old 
Indian who made discovery of the first vein of coal 
was promised a bottle of rum and repairs to his old 
flint-lock musket if he would bring to Victoria, 
seventy-five miles away, a sample of the mineral, and 
afterwards show where the vein was located. The 
old man loaded his canoe with coal and paddled 
away for days until he reached the place, and de- 
livered it to the party, who gave him the bottle of 
rum as agreed. The Indian was always afterwards 
known as " Coal Tyee." 

In our first work among the natives hardly a day 
passed but they had liquor, procured either from 
the miners or sailors, or from those contemptible 
characters who spent their time in vending the 
accursed " fire-water " among these deluded people. 
Many a score of bottles of whiskey had to be 
destroyed in those days. Sometimes, of course, the 
owners became terribly exasperated at our action, 
and we were always, while living right among them, 
exposed to danger from wild, drunken men. Two 
men followed me one night for some distance, and 
said they were determined to break my head with a 
bottle. Sometimes for whole nights together it 
would seem as if all of the people of the village were 
intoxicated, and often I have been called up at the 
midnight hour to settle some trouble, or possibly to 
prevent bloodshed, due to the presence of whiskey. 

On a trip along the coast, near where Ladysmith 
now stands, a young man under the frenzy of whis- 
key had shot down his own father. A council of 

127 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

the chiefs and people was being held, and I was 
called in to witness and hear the speeches and the 
talk of vengeance on the white man who had given 
them the liquor. One after another spoke, and fin- 
ally one chief directed a most appealing address to 
me. 

" Oh, Missionary," he said, " you bring us good 
words, the Book tells of good things, but look at 
that dead chief. Are you not ashamed of your 
white brother? Why don't you convert him? He 
has the Book, why don't he stop making and selling 
whiskey? Why don't you convert the man who 
gave the liquor to that man who shot his own 
father?" And as the old orator poured forth his 
eloquent address in his own language, I felt, for 
the first time, ashamed that I was a white man. 

The Law in Our Own Hands. 

More than once, realizing the awful effect of this 
dread traffic upon the natives, the Missionary felt 
impelled to take the law into his own hands in deal- 
ing with this illicit trade. 

One fine day in Victoria, another preacher and 
myself, crossing the bay on the old ferry boat, saw 
a canoe coming from under a wharf with boxes in 
it. I said to my friend, " That looks like whiskey." 
We hurried the ferryman up, watching at the same 
time where this canoe would land. Leaving my 
friend, I ran over the hill, shouting as I passed the 
chief's house, in his own tongue, " Give me an axe, 
an axe I must have." Jim, the chief, successor to 
old King Freezee, ran out of his house with an axe 

128 




WITCH DOCTOR. 

p. iig 

CROSBY TEACHING 
INDIAN CHIEF. 



COAL TYEE." 



p. 127 



WITCH DOCTOR'S WIFE. 



i>. no 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

in his hand. Seizing it I ran towards the canoe, and 
just as the men landed their cases of " tangleleg," 
as it was called at that time, I smashed them open 
with the axe, sending the blade through the five- 
gallen coal oil cans full of this terrible stuff. Much 
of the liquor then sold to the Indians was a vile 
combination of camphene, coal oil and other fiery- 
material, which seemed to set the natives wild when 
they drank it. The men by this time had run away, 
one up the hillside and the other some distance 
down the beach, looking back to see what would be 
done. I do not know whether they thought I was 
an officer of the law or not, but at any rate we got 
rid of that much of the abominable stuff — "chain 
lightning" it was sometimes called — which might 
have caused much trouble and loss of life in the 
camp. 

" Oh, Let Me Have Just a Little, Sir!" 

On a journey down the east coast of Vancouver 
Island my Indian boy, Charlie, and I, having trav- 
elled about twenty-five miles in a small canoe, 
touched at a little village on a beautiful island where 
I had often visited and preached before. 

Just as our canoe struck the beach, on the north 
point of the island, a young man by the name of, 
Jacob, who was already " half seas over," called 
out, " Mr. Crosby, whiskey, whiskey!" 

I jumped out and ran across the point of land, 
and here was a big fellow, named Comox Tom, 
with a large canoe, just pushing off. 

Too late to reach them, as they paddled away as 

129 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

quickly as possible, I turned around through the 
village and found they had had a " whiskey feast." 
And, oh! what a sight! nearly all drunk — men, 
women and children. 

Seeing that I could do them no good, I turned 
and said to my boy Charlie, " Will you go with me, 
and we will overhaul that canoe, or they will do the 
same bad work at another place?" 

"Yes, I'll go, sir!" he replied. 

Just then Jacob, the man who had called to me, 
came forward and jumped into the canoe, saying 
that he would go too. 

Off we went, following the big canoe, which was 
now well over towards the other island, some three 
miles away. Our little craft, with three good 
paddles and plenty of elbow grease, fairly leaped 
over the water, and it was soon evident that we 
were catching up to them with their heavy canoe. 

As we got near I saw the old man at the bow set 
his musket by his side and the man at the stern get 
his ready also, while the two women, who sat in 
midships, each armed herself with an axe. It 
looked as if they were getting everything ready for 
a fight. 

I stopped paddling and called to the big fellow, 
Tom, who was steering the large canoe, to stop and 
listen to what I had to say. 

" Tom, we have not come to fight," I said, " but 
I must have the liquor." And then *to my helpers, 
" Pull up alongside, boys!" 

As soon as we were alongside of their big canoe 

I seized hold of a five-gallon can of whiskey and 

130 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

began pouring it out. While I was doing this my 
boys in the bow of the canoe hauled on board a case 
of " Old Tom." The big Indian, in the meanwhile, 
got hold of the can as I was pouring it out and 
claimed it as his own. 

" Well, Tom, pour it out yourself," I said. 
" Pour it out, I tell you!" I shouted. 

Tom held it over the side, just near to me, and 
poured away until it was nearly all gone; then he 
stopped, and in a pleading voice said, " Oh! let me 
have just a little, sir!" But I kicked it out of his 
hand overboard and warned him not to sell liquor 
among the people along the coast any more. 

I asked if we had got all the liquor, and Tom, 
feeling bad at losing his, nodded to me, pointing 
to the boxes on which the women sat, as much as to 
say, " There is more liquor there." But try as we 
could, the women remained firm, sitting like statues, 
and we could not remove them. 

Turning to Tom I said, " I might have had you 
put in the ' skookum-house ' ' (as they call the jail), 
" but I want you to do better. Will you be a better 
Indian and stop this business?" 

He readily promised. Then I called to the boys 
in my canoe to hand me the case of liquor, and tak- 
ing the bottles two by two, I smashed them 
together until they were all destroyed. Just as the 
last two were going the young fellow, Jacob, who 
had worked so well and had evidently come with us 
in expectation of being able to secure a little more, 
reached to me and said, " Oh, do let us have a little, 

sir!" Poor fellows, how feebly they seemed to 

131 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

realize the awful effects upon themselves of strong 
drink. 

Up to My Neck in the Sea. 

A few days after this I had been preaching to 
settlers on Salt Spring Island, and while visiting a 
settler on the east side, a young Indian came rush- 
ing into the house crying out, " Mr. Crosby, Mr. 
Crosby, whiskey, whiskey!" and pointed to the 
beach, where he said there were some northern 
Indians selling liquor. 

We started down to the shore. I ran some dis- 
tance above where he said the canoe was, and got 
down on the beach, where I could now see them 
bartering away whiskey from their big canoe to 
parties camped on the shore. I made one straight 
bolt for them, jumped on board the canoe, and 
began throwing out their coal oil cans of whiskey. 
While I was doing this, four big fellows were push- 
ing off their canoe from the shore and carrying me 
with them out to sea. In a moment I made a plunge 
for the shore, coming up to my neck in the water, 
and got to land. We destroyed the whiskey and 
shouted after the savages that they must stop their 
unlawful deeds. 

My readers may wonder why the missionary took 

the risks he did, and interfered in matters that may 

seem to be outside of his regular evangelistic work. 

It was because he recognized this terrible traffic as 

the greatest enemy to the work in which he was 

engaged, and firmly believed that in fighting it he 

was taking the most practical method of preaching 

132 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

the Gospel to a people who were being destroyed, 
soul and body, by this trade in strong drink. 

The Whiskey Synagogue. 

At Departure Bay, near Nanaimo, there was a 
notorious resort, properly licensed, of course, but 
kept by a wretched fellow who made no pretence 
at keeping the law. 

This place went by the name of " The Syna- 
gogue," and was suspected of being the quarter 
from which many of the Indians, on their way 
north, secured their supply of liquor. Besides this, 
on an island near by, a quarry had been opened by 
a gentlemanly American, getting out stone for the 
new Mint Building in San Francisco. The nearness 
of this liquor joint resulted in continued drunken- 
ness among the workmen at the quarry, and conse- 
quently the neglect of their work. 

When it came time for renewing the licenses, I 
circulated a petition, in which I was strongly sup- 
ported by the proprietor of the quarry, and which 
was signed by most of the respectable and leading 
men of the town, and presented it to the magistrate, 
praying that the license for " The Synagogue '' 
should not be renewed, as we believed that liquor 
was sold to Indians at that place. 

On the day appointed, when the case was under 

consideration, the magistrate read out my petition 

and said, " I can't renew this license to-day." 

Nevertheless, after a few days we learned that the 

license had been given. 

It was in the afternoon of the same day that I 

133 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

met the proprietor of " The Synagogue," with some 
others, on the street, and he swore he would slap 
my face, though he did not get at it. 

Later on, emboldened by securing his license, he 
went to Victoria and got out summonses for twelve 
of the leading men of the town, whose names were 
on the petitions. He didn't include Crosby, as he 
said, " He isn't worth the powder and shot ; he has 
no money!" 

We met and engaged one of the best lawyers in 
the country to look after the case. He told us it 
would be wise for us to get evidence that this house 
had sold whiskey to Indians. 

So one evening, shortly afterwards, I took two 
Indians in a small canoe, and we went up to " The 
Synagogue." And while I stood in the dusk by 
the canoe, where I could see what went on, they 
purchased each a bottle of whiskey and brought it 
back to the canoe, and all the evidence needed was 
at hand. 

Our friend, the proprietor of the house, soon 
discovered what had happened, and did not press 
the cases against the petitioners. The summonses 
all remained in the hands of the parties until the 
next spring, when our lawyer forced them to bring 
the matter into court. The fellow was fined, his 
license taken from him, and it cost him some two 
or three hundred dollars. He treated the poor 
Indian missionary as politely as a French dancing 
master after that. 

In a Tight Box. 

Those were wild times, and I had more than one 

134 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

unpleasant experience, among whites as well as 
Indians. 

On my way to camp one evening, a party, com- 
posed of a big Indian and two women, all drunk, 
rushed out of the bush and seized me. I liberated 
myself from them by pushing one one way and the 
other another, smashed the whiskey bottle that the 
man held in his hand, and then ran as hard as I 
could. 

On one occasion I was kindly invited to stay at a 
logging camp back of Oyster Bay. After supper I 
preached to the " boys," and was listened to with 
respect and attention. When it came time to rest, 
they put me up in the top bunk in the bunk-house. 
And glad I was before morning that I was up aloft, 
for later on some of the boys came in the worse of 
liquor, passed around their bottles and had a most 
hilarious time. I don't know how it commenced, 
but very soon a fight ensued ; and, oh, how they did 
batter each other, while I lay in my blankets pray- 
ing that God would, in some way, stop the quarrel. 
I did not get much rest that night, I assure you. 

Next morning some of the poor fellows came and 
humbly apologized, and years afterwards one of 
them met me and asked if I recalled that night and 
its scene of turmoil and revelry. 

" Indian Pray One Eye Open and One Eye 

Shut." 

On one of my trips, very early in my missionary 

experience, we came to an Indian camp where a 

number of men and women were drinking whiskey 

135 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

in one of the large houses. The house having been 
pointed out to me, I rushed in without ceremony. 

The man who had been serving the liquor to his 
friends around the fire, having heard my footsteps,, 
was just in the act of putting a bottle away in a box. 
I rushed towards him, and seizing the bottle from 
him, I poured the contents upon the fire. The vile 
stuff blazed up with a blue blaze as if it had been 
coal oil. 

I told the people I was not angry with them, and 
invited them to the service. The little bell was now 
ringing, and there gathered into a large house about 
thirty or forty persons, who sat around the fire., 
some on boxes and some on beds and mats. 

We had sung in the native language, and were 
now singing in English, " There is a happy land, 
far, far away," when in came a man crazed with the 
drink, all painted up, with only a blanket on, wav- 
ing a scalping-knife in his hand and shouting at the 
top of his voice, " I'll fix the white man! I don't 
care for the white man !" 

He jumped on a bed behind where Cushan, my 
assistant, and I were just in the act of kneeling 
down to prayer. Cushan, the interpreter, prayed, 
and I prayed, for the first time publicly in the Indian 
language, for God to have mercy upon the poor 
people, and especially upon the poor man who had 
the knife and was so angry. I had not prayed very 
long before he stepped down as stealthily and 
quietly as possible and walked out of the house. 

After the service was over Cushan said to me, 
" Mr. Crosby, that man very angry. You not know 

136 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

Indian. He want to kill us. All the time when I 
pray I shut my eyes when I pray, but this time I 
shut one eye and open the other. I watch and 
pray." 

The episode was over, and the missionary smiled 
at the native shrewdness of his helper. 

Poor Cushan himself had been a slave to the 
drink. In his early years, when a servant of the 
Company, he had acquired a taste for it, but becom- 
ing a Christian, he gave up the habit. There were 
those, though, who knew his old weakness, and 
were not pleased at the change in him. Some time 
after the incident above narrated, one night in 
Nanaimo, passing by a log cabin, he was entrapped. 
Two white men who knew him — shall I call them 
men? demons in human form — invited the poor 
fellow in, locked the door, and tried in every way 
to persuade him to drink. Failing this, one held 
him and the other poured into him the accursed 
stuff. Then, alas! poor fellow, the old desire was 
awakened, and he drank. It took him a long time 
to get over this. But by the grace of God he did 
finally overcome the enemy, and lived a good Chris- 
tian life. 

Murder and Reprisals. 

Oh, the horrors of the drink traffic! How many 
awful tragedies may be laid at its door ! 

The whole village of Nanaimo was aroused and 

terrified one morning when a canoe came round the 

point with the bodies of two dead chiefs who had 

been murdered about thirty miles to the north. Old 

137 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Chief Quee-es-ton and a number of his party, who 
had been hunting on the island, were visited by 
some white men in a sloop laden with grog. Fired 
by the influence of what he had drunk, the chief 
demanded more. A quarrel ensued, and the white 
men shot the chiefs dead, put up their sails and 
sailed away, and were never heard of after. 

The bodies of these poor victims were brought 
home to their people, which set the whole tribe in 
an uproar, and they swore vengeance on those who 
had murdered their friends, or any other white men. 

In consequence, not long after this a white man 
by the name of John Brown, at Cowichan, was 
murdered, and poor innocent Robinson, a colored 
man, was shot in his cabin on Salt Spring Island, 
and about the same time Hamilton, another white 
man, was killed near Nanaimo. 

In connection with the latter crime, Jim and 
Quin-num, Indian names with which we are already 
familiar, were arrested and put in jail. 

Quin-num turned Queen's evidence, and impli- 
cated poor Jim, who was afterwards hanged. I 
visited him in the prison, and was with him all night 
before his execution, and finally stood beside him on 
the scaffold. 

I believe he was soundly converted while in 
prison. On the sad day of execution he said to the 
hundreds of spectators: 

" I was with Quin-num when he shot the man. I 
did not do the deed. I go to the Great Judge who 
will do right. But I say to the young men, keep 
out of bad company. If I had not been drunk and 

138 



STRUGGLES WITH WHISKEY 

gone with Quin-num, I should not have been here." 
Little wonder that the missionary acted at times 
the part of a detective, smashed up the barrels and 
coal oil cans and bottles, or brought to justice those 
unprincipled men who took advantage of the weak- 
ness of the natives. 

" A Life for a Bottle of Whiskey." 

About the time of these thrilling experiences the 
Victoria papers reported a very sad incident, under 
the heading, " A Life for a Bottle of Whiskey," 
which goes to show that the missionary's concern 
for his people, and his hatred of the traffic in " fire- 
water," were amply justified. 

' The coroner's inquest has decided," so reads 
the report, " that William Bailey, the Songees 
Indian, who was shot on the reservation, came to 
his death by the discharge of S — L — 's revolver. 
The whole trouble arose, as do most troubles with 
savage people, out of whiskey. In defiance of the 
law, someone had supplied the liquor, having no 
regard for the consequences of his unlawful act. A 
life for a bottle of whiskey, that is the total of the 
lamentable affair. Almost every day some serious 
trouble is reported from one or other of the reserva- 
tions. In every case the trouble is directly traceable 
to whiskey." 

On one occasion, two white men were brought 
before the Honorable Chief Justice of the Colony, 
charged with assaulting each other. 

The trial was completed, and his Honor was 

about to pronounce sentence. Turning to one of 

139 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

the men, who had lost his nose in the fray of the 
night before, he said, " For twenty-five years I have 
sat on the bench of this colony, and I have invari- 
ably found liquor to be the chief cause of all trouble 
and serious infringement of the law. If an Indian 
shoots a white man, it's been whiskey that has done 
it. If a white man shoots an Indian, whiskey is at 
the bottom of it. You, my friend, have lost your 
nose; your brother white man became a cannibal 
under the influence of whiskey and bit off your 
nose." And, giving his sentence, " You will have 
to bear the penalty, and in the future I advise you 
to let the whiskey alone." 

Don't wonder if the missionary, above every 
other man, should be a strong total abstainer and 
hate the very sight of liquor or its trade. 



140 



CHAPTER XIV. 
SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS. 

" When passing through the watery deep, 
I ask in faith His promised aid; 
The waves an awful distance keep, 

And shrink from my devoted head. 
Fearless, their violence I dare, 
They cannot harm — for God is there." 

— C. Wesley. 

Soon after I got the language of the people, other 
teachers took the school work, and I went out 
travelling from place to place, literally " paddling 
my own canoe." 

There were few steamers in those days, and none 
between Nanaimo, the centre of our work, and New 
Westminster and the Fraser River, where I was 
often called in my labors among the natives. 

These trips were invariably made by canoe, except 
for the chance of catching the river steamer which 
journeyed from New Westminster to Yale. 

The canoes of the Pacific Coast are of the type 
usually called " dug-outs," that is to say, they are 
mostly cut out of a cedar log. In the south, the 
large ones were spoken of as " Chinook " canoes, 
with rather a stub or short stern and a very high 
bow or neck. There were a great variety of smaller 
canoes used for hunting and fishing, as well as what 
they called a " spoon canoe," flat-bottomed and 
nearly straight, with hardly any bow or stern, which 

141 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

was used for travelling on very shallow rivers. 
These latter were often made of cottonwood, while 
the other types were always made of cedar. 

The largest canoes were made in the north. The 
great war-canoes, with a very heavy bow and stern, 
and capable of carrying easily fifty or sixty people, 
were so shaped that, when properly managed, they 
would sail over almost any sea. The Hydahs of 
Queen Charlotte Islands made the largest and best 
canoes ; they had larger cedar trees on their islands 
than could be found on the mainland opposite. 
These canoes were often from thirty to forty feet 
long and five or six feet beam, a beautiful model, 
with gracefully shaped bow and stern, that would in 
English phraseology be called a " clipper " for sail- 
ing. One of the largest of these canoes, seventy 
feet in length by eight feet beam, was presented to 
Lord Lome when he visited British Columbia dur- 
ing his term of administration as Governor-General 
of Canada. 

The medium-sized canoe was the best. With two 
large sails and well manned, one of these northern 
canoes would safely ride almost any sea. It was 
by means of these smaller craft that I made many a 
toilsome journey up and down the east coast of 
Vancouver Island, among the beautiful islands 
which lie along that coast, across the Gulf of 
Georgia, up the Fraser River, down into Puget 
Sound, and in and out of the many inlets which 
pierce the coast of the mainland. In one year I 
made four trips across the Gulf of Georgia and up 
the Fraser River and back. Twice I travelled the 

142 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

distance from Nanaimo to Yale and return, a round 
trip of about 340 miles, paddling the whole way. 

In journeying to and fro I travelled over two 
thousand miles a year in all kinds of weather, brav- 
ing the dangers of stormy seas and the eddies and 
swift currents of treacherous rivers, and enduring 
the discomforts of the wild, open life in a new 
country. In it all I see the good hand of God 
saving me from manifold dangers. 

In time one becomes used to such toils and diffi- 
culties, and, after all, they were only the common, 
every-day experiences of the miner or the frontiers- 
man of those early days. 

A Dangerous Trip. 

In the days when steamboats were few, and only 
one plying between Victoria and New Westminster, 
we were summoned to the latter place by the Chair- 
man of the District, from Nanaimo, to attend 
District Meeting. This was in March, 1865. 

A little iron steamer had just been brought out 
from England by the coal company, by which we 
had hoped to cross to New Westminster, but, unfor- 
tunately for us, she ran upon the rocks on Pro- 
tection Island, in front of the harbor of Nanaimo, 
the night before we had to start. Disappointed by 
this, Rev. E. White and I went to the Indian vil- 
lage and engaged the largest Chinook canoe we 
could find. A man accustomed to travel by canoe, 
when he saw it, said, " I would just as soon go in 
that craft as the steamer Enterprise/' 

We started with a crew of three Indian men and 

143 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

one woman, Chilk, the captain, an old heathen, hav- 
ing his wife with him. A Dutchman joined us, who 
said he had been a sailor for fifteen years, and thus 
there were seven of us in the party. It was a glori- 
ous day, and with provisions, paddles, sails, and all 
things necessary for the journey, we were soon 
away down south among the beautiful islands of 
the coast. We made a good run and camped for the 
night. In the evening one of our party shot a fine 
deer, which we added to our stock of provisions, 
and after a bountiful supper we enjoyed the sweet 
rest of an open-air camp. 

We aroused the men about three o'clock next 
morning, as we were anxious to secure an early 
start. After a good breakfast, in which venison 
was the chief feature, we gathered for prayers, and 
then were ready to commence our journey across 
the Gulf. 

It was one of those cold, grey mornings in March 
which promise almost anything, and the Indians 
were unwilling to start out so soon, thinking that 
the weather was uncertain. We felt, however, that 
we must press on or be too late for District Meeting. 

When we got out some distance from shore we 
found a strong north-west breeze after us, which, 
in a very little while, blew a gale of wind. We now 
tried in vain to get back to shore ; the wind blew so 
hard that we could see the branches of the trees 
breaking off on the island behind us. There was 
nothing left for us but to go before the wind, keep- 
ing our course as well as we could straight for the 

main channel of the Fraser River. 

144 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

As the sea began to dash over us, the Dutch sailor 
shouted out, " Take down the sail ! Take down the 
sail !" 

I told him to mind his own business and bail thq 
water out. But again he shouted frantically, " Take 
down the sail!" 

" If you don't stop you'll have to go overboard," 
I shouted at him. " Let the Indians alone, they 
know more about managing a canoe than you do." 

It was clear to anyone that had the sail been taken 
down — we had furled more than half of it — we 
would have been swamped in a very little while, as 
it was the only thing that gave her headway. 

As the great sea swept over us, three of us were 
kept bailing out, while the other men managed the 
canoe. Every few minutes old Chilk would shout, 
" Hold on! There is another great wave coming." 
We would grasp the side of the canoe and hold on 
for fear of being swept out, and then to our bailing 
again every chance we had. Thus we dashed on 
over the mighty, angry waves until we came to the 
sand heads at the mouth of the Fraser, and were in 
danger of foundering on the bars. 

It seemed as if that awful trip would never end, 
and yet every moment we were busy, so busy that 
our exertions kept us warm, in spite of the bleak 
March weather. At one time a tremendous wave 
broke over us, followed by another, and still 
another, close after, and the canoe dipped into the 
water as if she were going down nose first. The 
water seemed to rush forward for a final plunge, 
while all held their breath, expecting every moment 

145 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

to be submerged ; then, all at once, she made a lurch 
up with her bow and the water rushed back. When 
the old captain saw hope he shouted, " Tlil-a-sit ! 
tlil-a-sit! tlil-a-sit!" ("Bail out! bail out!") The 
very shout sent a thrill through everyone on board, 
and we were bailing out as hard as we could to get 
the water down. It all seemed done in less time 
than it takes to tell it. 

As we neared the mouth of the river the reason 
for this awful sea was made clear. The waves 
raised by the gale met the mighty current of the 
river, and the awful tide-rip at the sand heads was 
the worst we had to pass through. 

In two hours and a half we reached the mouth of 
the Fraser River, all drenched to the skin, but 
thankful to a kind Providence which had brought 
us safely through. 

" I did not hear you ministers pray at all in the 
storm," said the old heathen captain, after we had 
landed. 

We told him we prayed in our hearts while we 
were working. But there was no doubt about his 
prayers, for we could hear him and his wife shout- 
ing back at the great waves, " Don't drown us ! 
Don't take us down! for the missionaries are on 
board. Oh, you great big angry waves, don't be so 
angry, and we will be good if you don't drown us." 
And then all the Indians would join in the cry, 
" Don't take us! Don't drown us!" True to their 
custom, I think they would have liked some food 
or property to give as a sacrifice to the angry waves. 

I told the old captain I was glad to hear him pray, 

146 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

as I had never heard him pray before, but he should 
give his heart to God and become a Christian, and 
he might be useful in leading others to Jesus. He 
was a strong, daring fellow, a great dancer, a con- 
firmed gambler, and, poor fellow! he was a terror 
when drunk. 

On one occasion I found poor old Chilk standing 
at bay, with a pile of cobble-stones beside him, with 
which he was defending himself against anyone 
who might come near. He was dangerous when 
drunk, and two policemen were vainly endeavoring 
to get close enough to arrest him. When I came 
along the police appealed to me. 

" Oh, Chilk, you should not do that. Go home 
and be a good man," I said to him as I passed. 

"Don't talk to me! Don't talk to me!" he 
replied. 

I did not stop to argue with him, but, passing on, 
I immediately wheeled around, and while his atten- 
tion was again being taken by the policeman, I ran 
back and grabbed him by his long hair and pulled 
him over backwards. He commenced to kick and 
bite, but the policemen seized their opportunity, and 
before he could do any harm they had him bound 
hand and foot, and shortly afterwards landed him 
in jail. 

The next day, sober and in his right mind, and 
liberated, Chilk came to me and thanked me most 
earnestly for the part I had played. Nor was there 
any sarcasm in his action, for, he said, " I am so 
glad for what you did, for I might have killed some- 
body and been now in jail." 

147 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Canoe Better than Steamboat. 

Just as we entered the Fraser River we were sur- 
prised to see the little steamer Enterprise coming 
down, and as we passed her the chairman, Dr. 
Evans, and his colleague, Rev. Arthur Browning, 
bowed to us. District Meeting was over, and they 
were going home to Victoria ! 

Next morning, when we were down at the wharf 
at Westminster, there came in the Hudson's Bay 
Company's steamer Labouchere, and the Union 
Pacific Navigation Company's steamer, Shoebrick — 
the latter carrying supplies for the overland tele- 
graph line, which was to unite the continents by 
way of Alaska, which enterprise was broken up by 
the successful laying of the Atlantic cable. The 
men on the wharf wanted to know from the cap- 
tains of the ships why they had not come yesterday. 

" Oh!" they said, " it was blowing a terrific gale 
on the Gulf, and we couldn't cross." 

" Ha, ha, ha !" taunted the bystanders, " Parson 
White and his crew crossed in a canoe, and youl 
couldn't come over with your large steamships." 
But they little knew what a trip we had had. 

And now our old Dutch sailor had to have his 
say. He went boasting about the town that he had 
had his eye on Parson White's gold watch — a pres- 
ent to him as he left New Westminster some time 
before — and that if we had upset he was going for 
that. Poor, miserable fellow, he was the greatest 
coward in the crowd. 

This was one of the many terrible canoe trips we 

148 ' 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

had to take while at our work, when to all human 
appearances there was every possibility that we 
would never reach shore. Once after I made the 
journey in the opposite direction in a small canoe, 
with a single Indian as my companion, and again 
we were nearly swamped before reaching the shore. 
To-day, as always, I sympathize with the hun- 
dreds of fishermen who go out to the mouth of the 
river and venture into the Gulf, braving the awful 
storms which so often sweep down across this 
treacherous arm of the sea. Nearly every year 
reports have reached us of those who have risked 
their lives, and of some who have lost them, on this 
part of the coast. 

" Spul-queet-sa!" (" A Ghost! A Ghost!") 

We usually travelled in a much smaller canoe 
than the one in which we made the trip narrated 
above. On several occasions, when on my mission- 
ary tours, I took Her Majesty's mail to Victoria 
from Nanaimo. 

On one occasion Dr. Evans and I made a trip 
along the east coast to look out ground for an 
industrial school, where we might educate our 
young native men, with the hope of preparing them 
for teachers or missionaries. This was in 1868. 
We selected a fine place, on an island, but the Mis- 
sionary Society could not see its way clear to under- 
take this work. Strangely enough, this was the 
very spot where afterwards the Dominion Govern- 
ment built Kuyper Island Industrial School. As the 
Methodist Church did not see its way to undertake 

149 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

this charge, the Government placed the school under 
the direction of the Roman Catholic Church. 

One fine day on that trip a very amusing inci- 
dent occurred, which illustrates the Indian's super- 
stitious dread of anything which seems unnatural. 
As we were paddling along the Doctor was relating 
a joke about a miner and an Indian woman on the 
streets of Victoria. In order to appreciate the story, 
one must be told that the Indians lived to a consid- 
erable extent upon clams, which fact was made the 
butt of continual jokes, while the miners, in those 
days, subsisted largely on bacon and beans. The 
Doctor said : " An Indian woman was passing a 
group of miners on the street, when one of them 
drawled out, ' Cla-ms !' in a mocking tone of voice. 
The woman at once turned around very sharply 
and, much to the amusement of the crowd, retorted, 
'B-b-beans!'" 

As the Doctor, in relating the story, was attempt- 
ing to imitate the Indian woman's way of saying 
" beans," his set of false teeth fell out and very 
nearly went overboard. The Indian in the stern, 
seeing the teeth fly out, threw up both hands and 
very nearly went overboard himself. 

" Ah-na! ah-na-na! this man has come from the 
grave !" he cried. " Spul-queet-sa ! Spul-queet-sa ! 
I can't go on. This man is not a living man, he is 
a spirit," he told his friend in the bow. 

The other man refused to believe that a man 

could handle his teeth, as it was said the Doctor had 

done. They commenced to wrangle over the matter 

and were losing time. 

150 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

" Doctor, you will have to show the other fellow 
your teeth," I said. In an instant the Doctor pulled 
them out and held them before the man's face. 
With that he threw up his hands and screeched and 
screamed till we thought he would fall overboard. 
Then they got a little quieted down and paddled on, 
but every once in a while they would stop to discuss 
the thing, whether this was really a living man or 
a ghost from the grave. They watched him, espe- 
cially when we went ashore to camp for the night. 
When they saw that he could eat and laugh and talk 
like the rest of us they could not understand it. 

This reminds me of a trader's wife, a devoted 
Christian, living up the coast, who had a native ser- 
vant. The girl had been with her for some time 
and had become very much attached to her mistress. 
She used to go home to the camp every night and 
return to her work early in the morning. One 
morning, as the lady, whose name was Viona, was 
busy with her toilet, and was in the act of brushing 
her teeth, the Indian maid, returning, chanced to 
look in at the door. Seeing her mistress putting her 
teeth in her mouth, she cried out, " Oh, Viona ! 
Viona!" and ran away as hard as she could run. 
She told her friends that the lady was a ghost and 
had come from the grave, and she could not be per- 
suaded to return for many a day. 

Some More Exciting Experiences. 

I had been preaching down the coast and was 

returning when, at the north end of Salt Spring 

Island, I fell in with old Chief Chil-qua-lum, from 

151 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Nanaimo. He, too, was returning home from a 
hunting and fishing expedition, and had with him 
his two wives and their families, and their " iktahs " 
(belongings) — dogs, cats, fish traps, and a load of 
fish, dried meat, clams and other Indian eatables. 

He allowed me to get on board on condition that 
I would work my passage by helping him manage 
the big canoe. With hard paddling we got along- 
very well until we reached Dodds' Narrows, seven or 
eight miles from Nanaimo. Through this passage, 
at certain stages, the tide rushes at about ten miles 
an hour, forming whirlpools that would at times 
engulf any small craft whose misfortune it might 
be to be caught in them. 

At first it was a question whether we should ven- 
ture through or not with such a load of freight and 
human beings, but as the tide seemed fair and 
the old man wished to push on, it was a great 
temptation. 

In going through it was difficult to keep the 
heavily-laden canoe straight in the centre of the 
passage, and, veering a little to one side, we were 
caught in one of the whirlpool-like eddies. We 
were tossed about like a chip on the current, round 
and round, whirling like a top, two or three times, 
until it seemed as if we would surely be sucked 
down into the vortex that yawned before us. The 
old women jumped to their paddles, the children 
screamed, and the most intense excitement pre- 
vailed. But it was only for a few moments ; soon 
the exertions of all told, and we were out and on 

our way again, safe and sound. 

152 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

Now it was the old wives' turn, and they gave the 
chief a good tongue-lashing for his foolhardiness. 
They discussed what would have been the result had 
the missionary been drowned, and turning to the 
little children they told them that God had saved 
them from going down to the " Stla-la-kum " (evil 
spirits) in the water because the missionary was on 
board. 

Abraham and Sarah. 

Missionary meetings were being held at Nanaimo, 
and Rev. A. E. Russ, then of Victoria, was the 
deputation. When he was about to return home, he 
learned that I was going down the coast to visit the 
different tribes, and wished to take the trip with me. 

We called at Chemainus, where he preached, and 
there baptized Abraham and Sarah, two Indian chil- 
dren. The romance of it impressed him, and he 
spoke on the subject of the old patriarch and his 
wife. 

It was a very fine day, and going on further, the 

lazy Indians ran the canoe upon some rocks which 

were covered with barnacles. I told them to get out 

and pull her off, but they sat, one in the bow and the 

other in the stern, and tried to push off with their 

paddles. It was my own little craft, which I had 

painted and fixed up, and of which I took the 

utmost care. I could see the twisting of the canoe, 

and knew that it was in danger of splitting from 

end to end, so I jumped into the water, clambered 

up on the rock, seized the canoe and gave her a 

shoot backwards, springing into the bow as she 

went. 

153 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

My friend Russ said, " Crosby, you will kill 
yourself; you are a strange fellow." 

" Never fear!" I replied; "but I will show those 
lazy fellows how to do it." 

We reached Cowichan in safety, where Brother 
Russ took the steamer for Victoria. 

Here and There. 

In our missionary journeyings we visited the 
west coast of the mainland, preaching to the Sea- 
schelts, Squamish, and other tribes as far north as 
Cape Mudge. On Vancouver Island our work 
extended from Cape Mudge, on the north, to Race 
Rocks, near Victoria, a distance of 160 miles. 

In making a visit to the former place, with a 
party of three men, we were again in imminent 
danger of being lost. We had camped for the night 
above Qual-a-kum and got an early start in the 
morning, when a south-easter blew up. It was a 
stiff breeze, but all was well until we got near to the 
south end of Denman Island, where the lighthouse 
now stands, when our sail, mast and all, broke away 
from the socket, and it was a miracle that we were 
not upset. 

Some of our experiences were humorous as well 
as trying. I took passage one day with Chief Tsil- 
ka-mut, who with his wives and children was on his 
way to the Fraser River, where the Indians congre- 
gated to pick and dry berries, and to fish and dry 
salmon. The trip across was uneventful until in the 
fog and darkness we lost our way at the mouth of 

the river. 

154 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

The chief put his pole down in the mud and 
anchored his canoe, as he supposed, and we went to 
sleep on board the craft. Next morning we found 
we were high and dry in the mud on a bar that 
seemed to be miles away from any water. Oh, the 
mud, mud! There is nothing that compares with 
the mud of the Fraser for slimy stickiness when the 
tide is out. It was near noon the next day before 
the tide again reached us, and there we were all 
those hours in the scorching sun, a disconsolate 
crowd indeed. 

At that time there was no white man to be found 
settled on the Delta lands of the Fraser. Soon 
after this the Ladner brothers took up land on 
the south bank of the river and gave their name to 
the place. Then followed Ferris on Lulu Island, 
and Boyd and Kilgour on Sea Island, and others at 
different points, every one of whom was voted a 
fool for " taking up " these swamps with cat-tails 
and bulrushes and frog-ponds. Now these districts 
are covered with some of the most beautiful and 
productive farms to be found in any part of the 
world. The shores are lined with large canneries 
for the packing of salmon, and thousands of people 
occupy these old-time mud-banks. 

An Old Croaker in a Canoe. 

It is the easiest thing in the world to find fault 

with people of whose conditions and circumstances 

we know nothing. And sometimes a little taste of 

the trials and toils which others have to endure is 

the best cure for such unfair complainings. We had 

155 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

an old friend, a Yorkshireman, on that coast, who 
was very apt to find fault with others, and especially 
with the ministers. 

" Thoo knoa thease preeachers have good teams 
wi' theeir fat salaries," he would say. And then, 
seeing the gleam in my eye, he would hasten on: 
14 Ah dean't mean you, thoo knoas. Ah mean thease 
men 'at ez t' big fat salaries ; they can sit roond an' 
dea vary little." 

" Stop your noise," I would say to him. '* I am 
a preacher, and don't like to hear you find fault with 
the ministers." 

On one occasion he came to me and asked when 
I was going to New Westminster. When I told 
him and inquired why he wanted to know, he said : 

" Ah would like to gang wi' you." 

" You can go with one understanding," I replied. 

" Weel, what is that?" 

" That you work your passage. I never take 
deadheads with me." 

" Weel, Ah thinks Ah can paddle a little bit," he 
said. 

So the day came and off we started in our little 
canoe, down among the lovely islands which dot the 
west side of the Gulf, and then across. I was steer- 
ing, an Indian sitting at the bow paddling, and our 
old friend amidships. He was making a great 
effort " to work his passage," but not being used to 
that kind of thing, he seemed to work his whole 
body in the effort of paddling, and soon became 
very tired. 

The day was quiet and warm, and we were mak- 

156 



SOME PERILOUS CANOE TRIPS 

ing straight for Point Grey, near the north arm of 
the Fraser River. After he had pulled awhile, my 
friend looked round, and said : 

" Ah say ! do you knoa wot Ah thinks ? ' At point 
deean't seeam to get onny nearer." 

" Yes," I replied, " it gets nearer every stroke. 
Pull away! Preachers get used to this kind of life." 

Then he pitched in again and made a great effort, 
while we were quietly keeping stroke. We had not 
gone far, however, before he turned again and said : 

" Now, Ah can tell ye what it is, 'at point deean't 
get onny nearer." 

" Of course it does," I said; " every stroke brings 
us nearer. We must push on to get in before it is 
too dark." And we pulled on and on until nine 
o'clock at night. 

A little easterly wind was blowing out of the 
mouth of the river, accompanied by a fine rain. 
The tide was out, and it was difficult to find the 
channel, as it was getting dark. We would run into 
a sand-bank here and a mud-bank there, until finally 
we got up the channel some distance and could see 
the high dry shore of the river. After some con- 
siderable effort we got up the mud-bank with our 
camping outfit, and on to a dry knoll, where we 
started to make a fire. Gathering together some 
blocks of cedar and other dry wood, we soon had 
supper going. 

All this time my friend was standing in the midst 
of the rain, his hands in his pockets, shrugging and 
shaking his shoulders, and remarking at intervals : 

" Ah say, this is a nasty neet." 

157 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" The night is all right," I replied to him; " stir 
yourself and let us get something to eat." 

Supper and prayers over, we lay down under our 
tent, and, weary with the toil of the day, were soon 
fast asleep. It was about one or two o'clock in the 
morning when my old friend aroused me by shout- 
ing, " Ah say, t' water is comin' doon t' back o' me 
neck." It seems that he had got his head close up 
to the wall of the tent, on the weather side, and the 
water was running right over his head and down 
his back. 

" Oh, stop your noise !" I said, I am afraid a little 
impatiently, " and let me sleep. Preachers get used 
to this kind of thing." 

" Man, Ah can't sleep," he groaned, " t' water is 
coomin' doon t' back o' me neck." 

Next morning we were around bright and early 
and off up the river. Sixteen or eighteen miles up 
the old Fraser against the current required the 
strength of every muscle, and all the elbow grease 
we could put into it, to make headway at all, but 
finally we reached Queensborough (now New West- 
minster) in safety. 

A few days after I met our old friend and said, 
" When will you be ready to return?" 

" Ah'll nivver gang back wi' you," he replied. 
'* Ah'll pay t' last dollar t' steamboat, an' gang roon 
by Victoria. Ah'll nivver gang wi' you." 

It was an excellent lesson he had learned, for I 

never heard him croak about the preachers having 

a nice time after that. 

158 



CHAPTER XV. 
VARIED EXPERIENCES. 

" Who love the Lord aright, 

No soul of man can useless find; 

All will be precious in His sight, 

Since Christ on all hath shined." 

— Keble. 

Many and varied were my experiences among 
this people, some painful and distressing, some try- 
ing and toilsome, some bright and humorous, some 
hopeful and encouraging. 

The kindness of the Indians as well as the whites, 
and their evident desire to do all they could for my 
comfort, helped to lighten many a burden and make 
smoother many a rough pathway. 

I was " in journeyings oft " ; sometimes on 
foot, overland, or on the back of an Indian 
" cayuse " (pony) ; more frequently by canoe, and, 
occasionally, on the deck of a steamer. At one time 
I was acquainted with nearly every settler within 
the bounds of my large field — about 160 miles wide 
by as many long. 

After travelling some thirty miles and preaching 
at different points on the journey, I arrived one 
evening at an island where I had often preached 
before. As the day had been stormy and I had 
worked all the way, I was very wet. The old chief 
and his wife, both of whom were very kind and 
hospitable, made me welcome in their home. Piling 

159 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

up wood, they built a big fire, and I hung my wet 
blankets around the fire on poles to dry. 

"How glad we are the ' laplate ' (missionary) 
has come," the old wife commenced to say, in an 
undertone, as if to herself. " It is a long time since 
he was here before. We forget many of the good 
words he has said to us. Why don't you come 
oftener, missionary, and tell us more of the good 
story, that wonderful thing you tell us, about the 
Great Chief on High who gave His Son?" And 
then, as if recollecting the needs of her guest, she 
said : " Oh, I must get some supper for him." 

By this time she had a small basket that would 
hold water, threw in some potatoes, gave them a 
roll around in the water, and then put them into a 
pot on the fire. Reaching down a dried salmon 
from a pile which was stored on a platform over the 
bed, where the cats and rats and other animals ran 
over them, she gave it a big slap against the post to 
knock the thickest of the dirt off, and then held it up 
before the fire to warm and heat it, so that the skin 
would peel off. 

Very soon the potatoes were boiled and rolled out 
in a little trough-like dish about two feet long, the 
salmon was broken in pieces and laid on top of the 
potatoes, and the whole was set before the Indian 
boy and myself. 

All this time she was talking away to herself: 
" How good it is for the missionary to come. He 
has come through all the storm, and we must be 
kind to him." 

Having washed our hands, I asked a blessing 

160 



VARIED EXPERIENCES 

upon the food, and were soon at our supper of 
salmon and potatoes. We were sure that one side of 
the salmon was fairly clean, for the skin had been 
torn off it, and as for the potatoes, they had their 
jackets on, but we had to eat without a bit of salt. 

As we were working away quietly at the supper, 
the old man was stirring up the fire, keeping away 
the dogs, and doing everything he could to make 
things agreeable. All at once the old woman came 
and crouched down by my side, saying : " Oh, the 
good missionary, we are so glad you have come. I 
will help you to peel your potatoes," And suiting 
the action to the word she seized hold of one out of 
the dish, and with about two scratches of her long 
finger-nails she tore off the jacket of one potato, and 
then handed it to me, saying, " Oh, it is so good of 
you to bring us the blessed light. I'll help you, I 
will, to get your supper." We would very much 
rather have peeled our own potatoes, and had her a 
little at a distance, with her wretchedly dirty-looking 
blanket. 

Suddenly she sprang up, as if a bright idea had 
occurred to her, and exclaimed, " Oh, I had nearly 
forgot. I kept it for the missionary when he should 
come." Out of a big old box she brought some- 
thing tied up in a piece of dirty looking rag. 

" I have kept this till the missionary would come," 

she said, as she opened out before us a little flour — 

possibly the only flour they had had for months, as 

the people did not see much flour in those days. " T 

will make them a cake, I will." 

We were too busy to notice very closely what she 

161 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

was doing, but we found in a few moments that she 
had the little flour in the same basket in which she 
had just washed the potatoes. We saw her give her 
hands a little rinse in the water, but we were never 
sure whether she threw this out or whether it was 
the same into which she put the flour. Soon, how- 
ever, it was worked up into a paste, and taking it out 
in her hands she pressed it into a kind of cake. I 
had a chance then to notice her arms, bare from the 
shoulders, looking on the outside very black and 
dirty, and on the inside, where her cooking had re- 
moved some of the dirt, a little less dark. No won- 
der the cake was such a piebald looking thing! 

This black and white cake was thrown into a hole, 
which she had scratched among the ashes, to bake, 
while our hostess got some hot water and made a 
kind of tea from certain herbs which they used, and 
which went under the name of " Indian tea." In a 
few minutes, the cake, now quite baked, was poked 
out with a stick, broken in pieces and laid on a dish 
before us. With this and the tea, as dessert, we 
finished our supper. 

Some have asked, "Did you eat it?" Certainly, 
we ate it, with all the relish we could, and would 
never have thought of refusing it after all the kind- 
ness shown by the dear old people of the house. It 
is true that these people were dirty beyond descrip- 
tion, but out of a warm heart they did their best for 
us, and endeavored to make us comfortable, and we 
would have been meanly ungrateful if we had not 
appreciated it. 

After a little religious service we retired to rest, 

162 



VARIED EXPERIENCES 

not on the feather-bed that was offered us by the 
old chief, but with our own blankets, jiow warm and 
steaming, laid on some smooth rush mats; and 
though the dogs crowded around and seemed to 
quarrel as to which should be the nearest to us, and 
the fleas swarmed in such numbers as to drive sleep 
far away from one who was not used to them, we 
managed to rest very comfortably. 

Millions of Mosquitoes. 

In the Fraser Valley, besides the fleas, we were 
besieged by myriads of mosquitoes, that bred in the 
swales and sloughs and low marshy places, particu- 
larly after high water. They literally swarmed, 
and in some places rose in clouds as one passed, 
millions of them. 

I noticed in my journeys on horseback that my 
little pony, otherwise gentle and manageable, would 
jump and run at times in an unaccountable fashion. 
At such times the mosquitoes would strike my face 
and forehead like a storm of hail. Then it occurred 
to me that the intelligent little beast only ran when 
passing through the spots where these insects 
mostly swarmed, and henceforward I let him gallop. 

The settlers tell of dogs and calves being killed by 
the mosquitoes, and one reputable gentleman main- 
tains that he had in his possession at one time a cow 
whose tail had been so bitten by these venomous 
pests that it dropped off. 

An amusing incident took place at Langley on one 
of my visits to the river. The high water was just 

163 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

going down, and the mosquitoes were very bad. I 
was invited to stop over night at the home of a 
settler, who had just built a little log house of two 
rooms on a ridge in front of a great swale. The 
father and mother slept in a little room partitioned 
off, and as the son-in-law was away, their daughter 
occupied the room with her parents and left to me 
the bed the young people had. The room was open 
to the shingles, and the hot day and cooling evening 
had brought in the little pests in swarms. 

Our friends told me they had no mosquito-netting, 
but mother and daughter had invented something 
that they thought would enable the missionary to 
have a good night's rest. They had taken a crino- 
line dress, spread like a full moon, all starched up 
and ready to use, and tying a rope to the waist, they 
hung it up over where my head and face were to be, 
and tacked it to the clothes and round the pillow. 
After prayer and good-nights I was given a candle 
and told to be careful in getting into bed, and to 
keep this thing tucked well around. 

I did as I was told, dragged my weary limbs in 
under carefully, tucked the skirt around and was 
soon off in a doze. But, oh, the merry noise over- 
head, up and down and round and round, until 
finally they found their way, in some manner, inside 
my shield. They commenced to bore into my fore- 
head. I stood the torture for a while, thinking it was 
but a few stragglers who, when they had had their 
fill, would leave. They, however, loaded up, and 
spread their wings with a whirring buzzing, as if 

to call others to the feast. It seemed as if hundreds 

164 



VARIED EXPERIENCES 

accepted the invitation. I tried to keep still, but all 
to no purpose. About two o'clock I thought if I 
could get the candle lighted and inside I could burn 
them out and no others would get in, and I might 
have the coveted rest. I lit the candle, got it safely 
inside, and commenced the work of slaughter. The 
candle was soon black with the dead insects. 

The first thing I knew, the dress was ablaze all 
around me. In my half sleepy condition I had got 
too near the light starched material, and it caught 
like tinder. I jumped up and dashed it out with my 
hands, burning my fingers ; but, oh, the poor dress ! 
I fought the mosquitoes in the dark the balance of 
the night. 

Next morning the old lady asked me how I had 
slept, and the whole thing came out. They laughed 
uproariously at my expense, and I — well, I made 
the best of the joke. 

It was on this river that I met two " tenderfoot " 
Englishmen who were out looking for land. It was 
in the height of the mosquito season, and, unheeding 
the advice given them to take the steamer, they 
started off in a canoe, as they said, " to prospect and 
see the country." Some days after I met them in 
Chilliwack, and the sight they presented was, to say 
the least, ludicrous. They had evidently been in the 
water, for the legs of their pants had shrunken until 
there was quite four inches between the ends and the 
tops of their socks. The mosquitoes had been get- 
ting in their work, for their necks and legs and 
wrists were red and swollen. It was like perpetual 
motion, for while there were few mosquitoes 

165 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

around them, their hands were kept going scratch- 
ing the bitten parts and making dashes at imaginary 
insects. 

" A Parson after His Bitters." 

The comical appearance of these "new-comers" 
after their trip up the forest-lined banks of the 
Fraser reminds me of an occasion when I, too, must 
have presented a spectacle worthy to be laughed at. 

I was making my way one evening from North 
Saanich to Victoria, about twenty-one miles, over a 
trail, poor enough at the best, but rendered all the 
more difficult by the presence of a dense fog. The 
little bit of daylight was soon gone, and the dark- 
ness which followed was impenetrable. I groped 
my way along, part of the time on hands and knees, 
to find the road. 

Presently I came to a burning log heap a little off 
the trail, and as the night was very cold I warmed 
myself by the fire. Doubtful of my ability to go 
much farther in the darkness, I lay down beside the 
fire and slept — slept and dreamed that it was a fine 
day and I was having a delightful trip. Suddenly 
awakening, I felt that I must press on if I would 
catch the Enterprise at eight o'clock that morning 
and proceed on my proposed visit to the mainland. 

Daylight opening through the fog enabled me 

now to see my way, and on I sped, until finally 

I reached the outskirts of the city. I met many men 

going out to work, who would look at me strangely 

and nudge each other. When this was repeated 

several times I felt sure that it was something in my 

1G6 



VARIED EXPERIENCES 

personal appearance which was attracting their 
attention. 

Coming to the bridge tavern I stepped in. Just as 
I entered the door I overheard a girl say to her 
mother, " There's a parson come in to have his bit- 
ters." Nothing daunted, I refused the proprietor's 
offer of a drink, and asked for a chance to wash. 

I soon discovered the cause of the merriment of 
the passers-by. My face was black with the dust of 
the road and the smut of the brush-fire; my collar 
was dirty and wilted with perspiration; my neck- 
tie was awry, and all looked as if I might have been 
on a spree. 

But my exertions were all for naught, for the boat 
I had hoped would leave at eight a.m. did not get 
off for a week, so dense were the fog and smoke. 

Indians Respect the Sabbath. 

Very early in our work among the Indians we 
were encouraged by a circumstance which gave us 
to see that our teaching of the commandments was 
having its effect upon them. 

An exploring party, sent out by the Government, 
was preparing to start from Nanaimo across the 
Island. They hired a number of Indians as packers 
and guides. After having engaged these natives 
they hung around the town for some days doing 
nothing. When the week came to a close they im- 
mediately became active, and wanted to make a start 
on Sunday morning, but the Indians refused to go. 

The first intimation we had of the difficulty was 

through a letter, written by the head of the party 

167 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

and published in the Daily Chronicle, in which he 
stated : " Thanks to Brother Crosby, the Indians 
would not travel on Sunday, so we were detained 
another day." 

The fidelity of the Indians in keeping sacred the 
Lord's Day was, until recent years, a source of great 
joy and satisfaction to us. Sometimes, it is true, 
they were not able to keep an accurate record of the 
days. But their sincerity of purpose is shown by 
the means some of them took to be sure of which day 
was the Sabbath. 

Py-uke, the old chief of the Penelkuts, started 
soon after the missionary came to tie a knot on a 
string for each day in the week, and a double knot 
for Sunday. This he kept up for years, until he had 
a great ball of this native twine wound together as 
his time-keeper. This he kept, and if any members 
of the tribes around were in doubt about the day of 
the week, they would refer it to old Py-uke. 

We have in later years been grieved to see thou- 
sands of fishermen at the mouth of the Fraser fishing 
on Sunday. The law in the case has had its damag- 
ing influence upon the Indians as well as the whites. 
There is no excuse for a law which permits fishing 
after six o'clock Sunday evening except that of com- 
mercial greed and indifference. 



168 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO 
CHILHWACK. 

''Still Thy love, O Christ, arisen, 
Yearns to reach all souls in prison; 
Down beneath the shame and loss 
Sinks the plummet of Thy cross; 
Never yet abyss was found 
Deeper than that cross could sound." 

— /. G. Whittier. 

After repeated invitations from the Indians of 
the Fraser River, who spoke the same language as 
the Nanaimos, and who had heard, through Bros. 
Robson and White, of my ability to speak to them 
in their own tongue, I made my way in a canoe 
across the Gulf of Georgia and up the river to New 
Westminster, where I found thousands of natives 
gathered for the celebration of the Queen's birthday. 
This gave me the privilege of preaching to hun- 
dreds who would not have heard otherwise. One 
evening fully a thousand people were gathered on 
a square where two streets crossed, listening eagerly 
to the message of life, many for the first time, in 
their own language. 

On this occasion I went up the river as far as 
Mission, calling at Kat-sey, Langley and Whon- 
nock, preaching to the people, who everywhere 
received me gladly. 

The joy of these poor people in hearing the grand 

169 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

old Gospel story, and their earnest pleading for 
more out of " the Good Book," fully repaid me for 
the toils of the trip, and led me to seek an early 
opportunity to return. 

My next visit was made during the time when 
the country was suffering from a scourge of small- 
pox. The disease had been brought from 'Frisco, 
and was rapidly spreading among the Indians. 
Everyone felt interested in stamping it out. The 
Government supplied me with a stock of vaccine, 
and I passed down the coast of Vancouver Island, 
vaccinating all whom I could reach. Near Saanich 
I came across a very bad case ; one had died, and his 
body was left on the beach covered with brush, 
while another poor fellow, a mass of disease, was 
still alive and sitting on the bank beside a little fire 
of bark. We asked him how he got along for food 
and drink. Near him was a little canoe fastened by 
a long rope, and he told me that when the tide was 
up his friends would come from their village, about 
five miles away, and put food in the little canoe and 
push it towards him. Here the poor fellow stayed 
until he finally recovered. 

The Indians dreaded the smallpox, and not with- 
out reason. On one occasion, it is said, there came 
a thousand Hydahs in their large canoes from 
Queen Charlotte Islands, and camped in and about 
Victoria. The smallpox got among these people 
and spread with great rapidity. Alarmed for the 
safety of the citizens, the city council met and 
ordered the northerners to leave immediately. The 
next day they started up the coast, carrying their 

170 



HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO CHILLIWACK 

dead and dying with them. At Nanaimo they were 
forbidden to land, and on and on went that awful 
funeral procession. At every camping place some 
would die, and they piled up wood and burned them, 
and then went on. One canoe was found floating in 
the Gulf, a veritable funeral barge, for everyone 
was dead on board. Out of that one thousand mem- 
bers of a fine race only one man reached Queen 
Charlotte Islands alive. 

A Medical Missionary. 

On my mission of mercy I passed up the Fraser 
River and vaccinated hundreds of people. Some 
came to my preaching who might not have done so 
but for the purpose of being vaccinated. And thus 
even the smallpox, in some measure, opened the way 
for the Gospel. 

On this trip we went as far as Sumas and Chilli- 
wack. At the latter place, while preaching to a 
small band of Indians and telling them the old 
story in their own tongue, the chief Atche-la-lah 
stepped forward and laid down a dollar and a half. 

" Missionary," said the old man, " we want you 
to build a church here. You have opened our ears. 
No one ever told us the good word in our own lan- 
guage before; the other laplates " (priests) " did not 
talk to us like this." 

This was really the first subscription to the first 
Protestant church in the Chilliwack Valley, where 
now there are six Methodist churches for the whites 
and four for the Indians. 

Others came with their donations, until $12.50 

171 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

lay on the table, and this of their own free will, 
for I had not talked to them about church building. 
During the week which followed I went from vil- 
lage to village throughout the valley, visiting and 
vaccinating all who needed it. At every oppor- 
tunity I preached to the people and told what the 
old chief and his " see-aya " (friends) had done 
towards a church, until the donations increased to 
nearly $100. 

The following Sunday afternoon, after having 
preached to both whites and Indians in another part 
of the valley, I came to Squi-ala, a village at the 
mouth of the Chilliwack. 

Big Jim, an Indian, met me in his canoe, to take 
me across the river. I took the saddle off my horse, 
put it in the canoe, and the intelligent little beast 
swam behind us over to the other side. 

" Me think not many come to-day, Mr. Crosby. 
Priest he come." The priest, having heard I had 
made this appointment, had evidently intended to 
be there at the same time. 

" Well, Jim," I replied, " suppose you and I and 
Jesus, we will have a good time. Ring your bell H 

He rang his little hand bell, and nearly everybody 
crowded into the big house where we were going 
to have service. Among those present I found a 
number of white men who had come, some of them, 
a long distance, bringing their half-breed families 
to be vaccinated. As soon as the service was over 
I said to the people, " I am going away to-morrow, 
and if any wish to be vaccinated, now is the time." 

Numbers came forward, and uncovering the arms 

172 




FIRST PROTESTANT CHURCH IN THE CHILLIWACK VALLEY. 



A *\ 



HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO CHILLIWACK 

of themselves and their children, I went to work, 
scratching and putting on the vaccine. While thus 
engaged, a knock was heard on the door, and pres- 
ently it opened and someone, very abruptly and in 
broken English, said, " Is Mr. Crosby here?" 

" That is my name, sir," I replied. 

" I would like to speak to you," said the priest, 
for it was he. 

" When I get through my duty I shall be glad to 
speak to you, sir," and I went on with my work. 

This complete, I bade the people good-bye, warn- 
ing them not to listen to what the devil might say 
when I was gone. He would very likely say that 
I had taken their money. I expected to be back in 
three months, and would then see about building a 
church. In the meantime I would leave the sub- 
scription list with Mr. A. C. Wells, a respected 
settler whom they all knew. 

Going to the door, I met my brother the priest. 

" You wish to speak to me, sir," I said. 

" Yes, I want to say that you take all my con- 
verts away." 

" I beg your pardon ! I didn't do anything to 
your converts." 

" But," he persisted, " these are all my converts 
that are here." 

" Well, sir, I only preach the Gospel to them, as I 
do wherever I go," I replied. 

" I don't care about your Gospel ; it's no good," 
and the eyes of the little priest flashed as he con- 
tinued, " You compel one man to give money to 

help build your church." 

178 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" Now, sir, I would like very much to see that 
man," and I continued, " I am in a hurry, but if you 
let me see that man I will be very much pleased." 

So he called up a happy-looking lame man, named 
Tom. 

" Now, Tom," I said, " you speak in Chinook, 
for this ' father ' won't understand you if you speak 
in your own language; and speak the truth, Tom." 

" Nawitka " (yes), Tom assented. " Spose nika 
halo delate wawaw, Saghalie Tyee solleks kopa 
nika" ("If I do not speak the truth, God will be 
angry with me "). 

" That is right, speak all the truth, Tom." 

" Well, you came to my house this last week, and 
you say to me, ' Tom, what you think about build- 
ing this new church ?' I say to you, 'lama Catho- 
lic/ You say, ' Oh, very well, Tom, suppose you 
not give anything, all right.' But you asked me 
where my brother is. I tell you my brother is very 
sick in the house. You go in and talk very kind 
to my brother about Jesus, in our own language, 
and sing, oh, so nicely, and then you say, ' Let us 
pray/ and you kneel down and pray in my own lan- 
guage, and you pray and pray ; by and by my heart 
get very warm, when you pray; and when we get 
up, I tell you I give $2.50 to help build your 
church." 

Turning to the priest I said, " Now, did I compel 
the man to give money to my church?" and jumping 
on my horse, I bade him good-bye, leaving all the 
white men and the Indians, who had crowded 

174 



HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO CHIIXIWACK 

around to see what was going to be done by the two 
priests, to judge for themselves. 

I rode on to my evening appointment, where I 
had promised to preach to the white people. On the 
way, whether it was the excitement of my inter- 
view, or something else, I do not know, but I forgot 
both my sermon and text. I expected to preach to 
a number of settlers, some of whom had families by 
native women, to whom they were not married. 

By the time I reached the farm-house my mind 
was directed to the text, " No man cared for my 
soul." And if ever the Almighty helped a poor 
mortal to preach He did it that night. Thoughts 
seemed to come right down from heaven, pouring 
through my soul to the people around me. I spoke 
of the judgment day, when the cry would come 
from these dishonored mothers and children, " You 
sinned with us and dragged us down, but you never 
cared for our souls." God helped me fearlessly to 
preach the truth, and then applied it with convicting 
power to their hearts. 

At the close of the service I spoke of how the 
Indians had started a subscription to build a church, 
and said that if anyone there would like to help they 
were at liberty to do so. 

" Well, I think I can give you five dollars after 
that heat," said an old man, whom some thought the 
worst in the crowd. Several followed his example 
and gave five dollars each. Thus the first church in 
Chilliwack was subscribed for by Indians and 
whites alike, and for a time served the purpose for 

both. 

175 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Early next morning I left for the coast of Van- 
couver Island. 

The Beginning of the Revival. 

In January following, 1868, I left my home and 
work at Nanaimo, attended some rousing mission- 
ary meetings in Victoria, crossed the Gulf, took a 
canoe manned by Indians, and went with them up 
the river. 

We pushed on up the Fraser as fast as we could, 
for it was getting very cold. A biting north-east 
wind was blowing right down the river, and before 
we reached Sumas one of our men had his fingers 
frozen, and they all begged of me to stop. We 
spent one night at Sumas Landing, and now the 
weather moderated a little. 

" Where are you going?" said a friend, just as I 
was leaving on a preaching tour through the valley. 

" I am off to Nah-nates, fourteen miles away, at 
the head of Sumas Lake, to preach to the Indians; 
then back to Tso-wallie (Cultus Lake) ; then to 
Skowkale, and on to Squi-ala, all Indian camps, and 
back to Sumas." 

"All right! Go and see the Indians," said my 
friend, " but be sure and do not go to the Upper 
Settlement, as the men have declared they will do 
you some bodily harm. You know that fellow 

Harry , he is the leader of the party. They 

declare that they will fix you on account of the ser- 
mon you preached to them the last time you were 
up there." 

" Good-bye! Pray for me!" I replied, and off I 

176 



HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO CHILLIWACK 

went across the prairie as happy as mortal could 
be. 

Continuing on my way, who should I see ahead 

of me but this very Harry , travelling alone. 

As I drew near to him I lifted up my heart to God 
that He would give me wisdom to deal with the 
man in the best way. 

When I met him I threw out my hand and got 
his in mine. Shaking hands with him I said, 
" Praise the Lord, Harry, you and I are not in hell. 
We might have been there long ago but for the 
loving Saviour. Oh, how He has loved us." And 
still holding him by the hand, and looking him in 
the eyes, I continued, " Harry, do you love the 
Saviour? You ought to love Him. He died for 
you." By this time his eyes began to moisten. 

" How are the boys in the Upper Settlement?" I 
went on. 

" They are all jolly and well, sir," he replied. 

" Tell them that next Sabbath, if all is well, I 
want to preach to them, and I hope they will all 
come." 

" They will be glad to see you, Mr. Crosby," said 
the now thoroughly subdued Harry. 

Bidding him good-day, I continued on my jour- 
ney, praising the Lord that I had had such a good 
opportunity of meeting Harry alone. 

These were the days of no roads, only blind trails 
and no bridges, so that if you could not ford the 
streams and sloughs you might swim. Woe betide 
the man or horse that got into a miry hole. I made 
my first trip through to Chilliwack from Sumas 

177 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

over what was called the trail. Poles had been laid 
lengthwise over the sloughs to enable one to cross, 
and it was really amusing to see the little horses 
walk the poles. But, oh, dear, if you had a horse 
that could not walk the poles ! 

After visiting the Indian camps as I had planned, 
I got back to the Lower Settlement Friday night, 
where we had a prayer-meeting. On Saturday 
night we had a never-to-be-forgotten service at a 
bachelor's house near Miller's Landing. The old 
man seldom swept his house, and to save the trouble 
of washing dishes, when he had used them on the 
one side for a time, he turned them over and made 
use of the other side. We had to sit on boxes 
around the fire, which was built, like any Indian 
camp, in the centre of the floor, the smoke finding 
its way out through the cracks. I trust the dear 
Lord blessed the poor man. He died soon after- 
wards. 

Sunday morning I preached to the white people 
of Sumas from the text, " Thy word is truth." At 
the close of the service I asked all who wished to 
talk about religion to stay behind. Several 
remained, who showed by their conduct and conver- 
sation that the Lord was at work upon their hearts. 

During the afternoon I went on to Chilliwack, 

and at night preached to a crowd which filled to 

overflowing the two rooms in the private house 

where we held our service. The Spirit of God was 

present in mighty, awakening power, and the whole 

neighborhood was moved. Not an unkind word 

was said to me, in spite of all the threats I had 

178 



HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO CHILLIWACK 

heard of. For six weeks the work of grace con- 
tinued, until nearly all the people were converted. 

The interest awakened led to a desire to im- 
prove the means of communication between the 
two settlements. Early the following week " a 
bee " was called to make a road, with pole bridges 
over the sloughs, between Sumas and Chilliwack, 
which was really the first road in the settlement. 

In the midst of all this I was taken with conges- 
tion of my left lung, and had to be kept in the house 
and treated with a steam bath of hot water and 
cedar boughs and mustard plasters for several days. 
However, the next Sabbath I took four services, 
and for weeks following preached night after night, 
and have never had anything the matter with my 
lungs since. 

The awakening was so general that, far and near, 
nearly everyone was affected. A man came four 
miles one morning, while I was ill, to tell me that 
though he had taken his horses out that morning to 
work, he was so troubled in his soul that he couldn't 
work, and then and there gave his heart to God. 
At once he became so happy that, as he said, " the 
mountains looked brighter, the birds sang sweeter, 
and all nature seemed to be praising the Lord," and 
he thought he must come and let me know of his 
new-found joy. On the way he called at the cabin 
of a neighbor and found him on his knees praying. 

Another man came several miles after midnight 

to beg me to get up and go home with him, for, as 

he said, he could neither sleep nor eat, and he feared 

that he would die if a change did not soon come. 

179 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" Praise the Lord !" I shouted. 

" Man, don't talk to me like that; I shall die." 

" There is no use in my going with you all that 
distance," I replied. " I have heavy work to do. 
But I am glad the Lord is troubling you." (He had 
a native woman and several children. I was not 
ordained at the time, and could not legally marry 
him.) 

He still begged me to go with him and talk with 
the poor woman as well. 

" Will you promise to be the legal father of those 
children the first chance you get?" I urged. 

" Yes, I will do anything," he said, and there was 
agony in his voice, " for I shall die in this state and 
be lost." 

" Then the Lord will convert you on credit," I 
said. The poor man was made happy right there. 
A short time after, when an ordained minister came 
up, he married five such couples. 

We had some wonderful testimonies during these 
meetings. 

One night a man got up and said : " I came here 
with my neighbor to scoff. But as the meeting went 
on he said to me, ' Jim, let's get out of this ; it is 
too hot.' ' No,' I said, ' let's stick it out.' And now, 
friends," he continued, " I wish you would pray for 
me; I want to find this religion you speak about." 

Another old man testified and said : " I was a 
soldier in the Russian war, and one time was called 
up to be court-martialled for being drunk and dis- 
orderly. All I had done was to sing a little ditty 

in the presence of my chief officer, and he thought 

180 



HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO CHILLIWACK 

I was drunk. When the investigation was held, my 
character in the past was examined. They looked 
up the records and said, ' Sergeant H — has a clean 
sheet, he has never been before the court in the 
past, let him go free.' My friends, when this 
revival commenced I felt that I was very wicked, 
and the sins of my life came before me. But now, 
bless God, I have got a clean sheet ; Sergeant H — is 
forgiven through the blood of the Lamb." 

Another poor man, who had been an Independent 
in England, said : " When these meetings com- 
menced I thought, ' What are these people making 
so much fuss about? I am a member of an Inde- 
pendent church, and I am good enough.' But the 
Spirit of God showed me how far I had wandered, 
and now I am at the feet of Jesus and trusting in 
God alone for salvation." 

A quaint Roman Catholic Irishman attended the 
meetings and used to give his testimony : " Be 
jabbers! you are the best praste that ivver came to 
these rayjans," he would say. " No praste ivver 
blessed the paypul like you have. I wish the dear 
man would stay wid us and get some young gurrls 
to come here, and then mesilf and some others of 
the poor b'ys might get a wife." (He was a 
bachelor, and remained one.) 

One day during the revival a fellow came to the 
door and asked the kind lady of the house for 
Crosby. She said, " Come in." " No," said he, " I 
want to see Crosby out here." I was called to the 
outer door, where I met a man who, like many of 
his neighbors, was living a wicked life, and thus 

181 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

setting a very bad example to the poor dark pagan 
Indians. 

" Come out here. I want you. I'd like to thrash 
you," he cried out. 

" Come in, come in," said I. 

" No, I want you to come out here. I'll thrash 
you if you said so-and-so about some of my brothers 
and neighbors." 

"Well, isn't it true?" I replied. " If it is true, 
what are you mad about ? You know it is true, and 
God will judge you for such conduct. If you do 
not repent you will have a hot place in hell. So you 
had better get at the confession of your sins to God. 
If you do it sincerely He will help you." 

The poor fellow went away in a changed mood 
without thrashing the preacher. He was after- 
wards converted and became one of my fast friends. 

After the meetings had been continued about 
three weeks, Rev. Arthur Browning came to our 
assistance, and some memorable services were held. 

The glorious work of grace, having thus begun 
by the good hand of the Lord, continued until the 
whole valley was aroused, and many of the most 
hardened sinners were awakened and converted. 
When I left, shortly after, to attend the District 
meeting, there was a class of thirty-one members, 
nearly all the white people in the valley. 

Looking back upon this marvellous work of God. 
so unexpected by human foresight, of which I had 
been a favored witness, I am led with adoring grati- 
tude to exclaim, " What hath God wrought ! Not 
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name 
give glory." i 8 2 



CHAPTER XVII. 

MORE OF THE CHILLIWACK REVIVAL— 
CAMP-MEETINGS. 

" Oh, it is great, and there is no other greatness, to make 
some nook of God's creation a little fruitfuller, better, more 
worthy of God ; to make some human hearts a little wiser, 
manfuller, happier, — more blessed, less accursed ! It is a 
work for God." — Thomas Carlyle. 

One of the most beautiful districts in Canada is 
that which is bounded on the west by the Sumas 
River, on the south and east by a spur of the Coast 
range of mountains, whose easternmost peak, Mt. 
Cheam, rises in majestic grandeur 8,500 feet, its 
summit crowned with perpetual snow, and on the 
north by the Fraser River, and known as the Chilli- 
wack Valley. The district is divided into two parts, 
that through which the old Chil-way-uk River flows 
being properly Chilliwack; the western portion, 
along whose edge the Sumas River flows, being 
called Sumas. To the south-east another smaller 
valley is situated, divided from the main section by 
a low range of hills, through which the Chil-way-uk 
finds its way by a narrow pass at Vedder Crossing. 

The united valleys contain upwards of 80,000 
square acres of the richest soil to be found anywhere 
in the world. A yield of sixty bushels of wheat, 
or of sixty bushels of oats to the acre is quite 
common, and some idea may be had of the mar- 
vellous fertility of the soil when a meadow has 

183 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

been known to produce for twenty-five consecutive 
years an average of three and a half tons of hay to 
the acre, and that without having been re-seeded or 
fertilized otherwise than by the pasturing of cattle. 
On the levels and along the foothills an ever-increas- 
ing acreage of orchards — apples, pears, plums, 
prunes, peaches and cherries — may be seen, and 
vegetables of all kinds are grown in rich abundance. 
This garden spot, beautiful for situation, the joy 
of all those whose good fortune it is to live there, 
was at one time the home of great bands of Indians 
belonging to the Flathead nation. Where to-day 
there are eight small villages, there were thousands 
of people governed by certain great chiefs, whose 
authority was respected to a great extent through- 
out the whole valley. Their numbers have been 
reduced by disease and by their terrible tribal wars. 
The Indians from Cowichan and the coast made 
periodical incursions, massacring the people and 
burning their property. Their enemies were not 
always successful, for on one occasion, when the 
young men of the valley had gone down to work at 
Langley and Victoria, and had secured their pay in 
blankets, as was then the custom, the Cowichans 
became enraged at this interference with what they 
considered their labor market, and, gathering a 
large war party, they went up the old Chil-way-uk, 
prepared for the work of murder and destruction. 
They were met, however, with a stout resistance, 
their canoes were all captured and destroyed, and 
those who were not killed were forced to make their 

way home again stealthily and on foot. 

184 



CHILLIWACK REVIVAL— CAMP-MEETINGS 

The Indians still have traditions of the visit of 
the first white man to the river, and of how the 
Gospel first came to the Chilliwack. 

We have in this valley what many call a model 
settlement, whose people are law-abiding, and whose 
business is carried on prosperously without any 
liquor licenses. Not one was ever granted, and the 
people do not want one to-day. 

In 1808, when Simon Fraser made his way down 
the great river which now bears his name, he landed 
opposite Chilliwack, at the mouth of what is now 
known as the Harrison River. Here he was received 
by hundreds of the natives, who thought, as they 
said, that " he was the pure white child of the sun." 
The chiefs carried him upon their backs and set him 
down on mats in the place of honor, and then 
danced to the sun-god for days in token of their 
appreciation of the visit of his son. It was not long- 
after that they discovered, when rum and disease 
followed in his train, that the white man was not the 
pure child of the sun they had imagined. 

The Visit of the First Gospel Messenger. 

The Indians of Chilliwack have their own story 
of how the Gospel first came to their beautiful val- 
ley. Not long after I commenced my labors 
among them and began to teach them the transla- 
tions we had made of some of our hymns, sung to 
those grand old tunes which have been used for 
scores of years, they told me they had heard those 
tunes before. Many years before there were any 
settlers in that part of the country, or any white 

185 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

missionary, a visitor came to them from the big 
river, away to the south. 

Sna-ah-kul — for that was the visitor's name — told 
them that some years before a white man had come 
among his people to the south and had taught them 
out of a great book the words of God. His message 
had been a great blessing to the people, who in large 
numbers turned from their old ways to God's way. 
Following him a few years after, another man came, 
dressed in a garment reaching to his feet, " just like 
a woman," who taught the people to worship with 
candles lighted in the day-time. 

Sna-ah-kul remained a little while, telling them 
about God and His great love, and cheering their 
hearts by the singing of some beautiful hymns, and 
then he returned to the south once more. Before 
leaving he said : " The man dressed like a woman 
will some day come to you, but do not listen to him. 
Wait a while until a man with a short coat comes 
among you who will teach you out of the Book." 

And so numbers of the Indians, when I came 
among them reading from the Book and preaching 
unto them in their own tongue, claimed me as the 
one whom Sna-ah-kul years before had told them 
would come. 

In all probability this Indian messenger was one 
of the converts of the Rev. Jason Lee, the pioneer 
missionary to the Flathead nation, who had been 
sent out by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
had established himself among the Chinooks on the 
Columbia as early as 1833. The influence of his 
work was felt all along the Puget Sound country, 

186 



CHILLIWACK REVIVAL— CAMP-MEETINGS 

and some of his native helpers might easily have 
found their way from Nisqually, through Sumas to 
the Chilliwack. 

The first visits to the Indians of the Fraser were 
made by Revs. Ebenezer Robson and Edward 
White, the former of whom commenced school 
work among them while stationed at Hope, some 
forty miles above Chilliwack. These brethren both 
visited the Chilliwack before I came there, and told 
them that a missionary speaking their own language 
would soon be sent among them. 

The revival which proved such a blessing to the 
white settlers of the valley left a similar influence 
upon the Indians. They saw the wonderful change 
which had taken place among the white men, and 
many of them became strangely aroused and were 
savingly converted. Chief Hal-lal-ton, of Skow- 
kale tribe, was a notable instance of the power of 
Divine grace. He was a chief of the old school, and 
when he was converted he brought his whole tribe 
with him. Big Jim, the brawny canoeman, who 
more than once ferried me across to his own village 
of Squi-ala, " Captain John " Sua-lis, of Tsowallie 
(Cultus Lake), and others, were among those who 
were brought to accept Christ and to become His 
faithful followers. 

Sua-lis (Capt. John) was a hereditary chief, and 
at the time of my coming was one of the most 
influential chiefs in the valley. His conversion had 
a great influence upon others. When I first knew 
him he was a poor victim of the white man's fire- 
water, but the power of God transformed this 

187 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

drunken, gambling, semi-heathen chief into a devout 
follower of Jesus and a diligent, persevering 
worker for Him. 

He delights to tell of his early experiences and of 
what Christ had done for him. In the old days he 
had charge of a crew of Indians, freighting for the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and hence his name, 
" Capt. John." In the days of the great stampede 
to the Fraser and Cariboo gold mines he carried the 
miners in his canoe across the river, and accumu- 
lated thereby upwards of $2,000. But, on an unfor- 
tunate day for him, he learned the taste of strong 
drink, and it did not take long for him to lose the 
whole of his savings. He began to fear that he 
would lose his power as a chief if he did not stop, 
so going to the priest who had preceded us, he 
told him his troubles. The priest gave him a cruci- 
fix, and told him to hang it about his neck and to 
look at it when the temptation to drink came on, and 
it would help him. But the young chief found no 
peace from that quarter. He heard of the coming 
of a missionary who could speak to him in his own 
language, and on his arrival Sua-lis came to hear 
him. Immediately he received bitter opposition 
from the priest, but he paid no attention to him and 
went again to hear the messenger. Finally he 
attended a camp-meeting at Maple Bay, and there 
gave himself up fully to Christ. 

The conversion of so many prominent men led to 

the most bitter persecution on the part of the 

Roman Catholic priests, who laid claim to this 

whole district. The character of the persecution 

188 



CHILLIWACK REVIVAL— CAMP-MEETINGS 

was illustrated by a picture, about twelve by twenty- 
four inches in size, which they had painted and 
scattered among the people. At the upper corner 
of this picture was the representation of a beautiful 
place labelled " Heaven," with the Catholics ascend- 
ing to it with wings, and in the lower corner the 
lurid flames of hell-fire, and Crosby and his friends 
going head-first into it. Still the work spread, and 
scores of these poor people were led into the pure 
light of the Gospel, and many of them still live 
devoted and exemplary lives. 

First Camp-Meeting. 

At the District Meeting held in the spring of 1869 
it was agreed that I should leave Nanaimo and take 
up the work at Chilliwack, which the recent revival 
had opened up. Consequently I left my bachelor 
quarters adjoining the little Coal City, and taking 
my books and trunks by canoe, and crossing the 
Gulf of Georgia, made my way up the Fraser River 
to Chilliwack, there to take charge of the Indian 
work, and the white work as well, until a mission- 
ary could be secured for the latter. 

It was warm weather in April, and the hot days 
were followed by cool nights, when going up the old 
Chil-way-uk River, after a week's trip, there came 
on a pelting hail-storm, and I was drenched to the 
skin. When I reached my destination I was shak- 
ing with fever and ague, and for nearly six weeks 
I lay upon my bed, sometimes in a delirious state. 
No doctor could be reached short of Yale, and his 

answer to our telegram was to " give a blue pill 

189 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

every four hours/' until he could come down. 
When he arrived he found me prostrate from the 
effect of too strong medicine. He looked at me and 
left, and sent in his bill for fifty dollars. For some 
seven or eight days following they did not think I 
could live, but the careful nursing of my dear 
friends, Bro. and Sister Wells, and others, finally 
won, and I recovered. The fever, however, settled 
in my leg, and I had to go with crutch and stick all 
summer. 

When I was getting about the chairman, Rev. E. 
White, accompanied by David Sallosalton and 
Amos Cushan, came up and held a field meeting on 
the ridge over the Achelitz River, on May 24th and 
25th, and I assisted them as best I could. 

Camp-meetings have been among the most suc- 
cessful means of reaching the Indians and bringing 
them to the light. In June of that same summer the 
first camp-meeting ever held in British Columbia 
took place, on what afterwards became historic 
ground, at Maple Bay, some miles below Nanaimo. 
Lumber had been brought from Saanich Mills with 
which to build a church, and this lumber was used 
to make " tents " for this first camp-meeting. 

The steamer Enterprise brought numbers from 

Victoria and New Westminster to the camp, and 

Indians from Chilliwack, Sumas, etc., as well as 

from Nanaimo, gathered in large numbers. It was 

at this camp-meeting that " Capt. John" Sua-Ks 

was converted. Following this meeting we had a 

mighty spiritual upheaval at Nanaimo, which gave 

us great encouragement after the toils of the years. 

190 



CHILLIWACK REVIVAL— CAMP-MEETINGS 

The second camp-meeting at Maple Bay took 
place in July, 1870, and in September of the same 
year the first camp-meeting was held in Chilliwack, 
on the banks of the Fraser River, where the old 
Chil-way-uk joins the larger stream. In the midst 
of preparations for the gathering, clearing off the 
ground, etc., a heavy rain came on. We had got 
the loan of a great raft of lumber which was to be 
floated down the river to the Sumas to build barns ; 
but the raft got past us, and we feared we should 
lose it. We stood up to our waists in water to hold 
it, and then, after finally anchoring it, had to pack 
the whole 22,000 feet back to place. 

It was a grand camp-meeting, however, the fore- 
runner of many blessed seasons of grace which the 
people of the valley have enjoyed. The steamboats 
chartered for the occasion brought large numbers 
of whites from Victoria and New Westminster, 
while Indians from the north and from the island, 
as well as a great many from the locality, were 
there in large numbers. It was a time long to be 
remembered. Here " Old Capt." from the head of 
Sumas Lake was converted, and David Sallosalton 
preached his steamboat sermon, and Amos Cushan 
his never-to-be-forgotten sermon on the final judg- 
ment. These two native helpers were mightily used 
of God in touching the hearts of and arousing their 
own people. 

Education of the Children. 

Early in our work at Chilliwack we realized the 

importance of reaching and educating the children. 

191 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

But as they were scattered at such distances, and 
so few children in any one place, the only real 
teaching we could do was when we got them all 
together in a big rough house, put up for that pur- 
pose, near the Achelitz church, and here we gave 
them instructions every Sabbath. It became evident 
to all concerned that we must have an industrial or 
boarding school. 

At the District Meeting held in the spring of 
1872 the matter of establishing an industrial school 
was discussed, and a resolution setting forth the 
needs was placed on record in the minutes. Grow- 
ing out of this discussion the following resolution 
was submitted and passed, and forwarded to the 
Mission Rooms : 

" In view of the foregoing resolution, and the 
responsibility of establishing an industrial school on 
the Chilliwack, and believing that a sum of not less 
than $1,000 is requisite for the erection of mission 
buildings, 

" Resolved, That this meeting desires hereby 
strongly to recommend the Missionary Committee 
to make a grant of $500 for the above object, and 
at the same time to obtain a similar amount by 
donation." 

This recommendation, however, was not adopted, 
and it was not until some years later that anything 
practical was accomplished, when Rev. C. M. Tate, 
who was appointed my successor, seeing the neces- 
sity of getting some of the children at school, gath- 
ered a number into his own home and then enlisted 

192 




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CHILLIWACK REVIVAL— CAMP-MEETINGS 

the aid of our Woman's Missionary Society in 
building a boarding school at Sardis. 

The first building was destroyed by fire, but Bro. 
and Sister Tate persevered in their work, and to-day 
we have the well-equipped and beautifully-situated 
Coqualeetza Industrial Institute, the product of 
their consecrated zeal and enthusiasm. 

The Visit of Dr. Punshon. 

In 1 87 1 we had the joy of a visit to the Pacific 
Coast by the President of the Wesleyan Methodist 
Conference in Canada, the Rev. Wm. Morley 
Punshon, D.D. His sermons and lectures are still 
talked of by those who had the pleasure of hearing 
him. Broad-minded, warm-hearted man that he 
was, he soon captured the affections of all who met 
him. One evening, after lecturing to the people of 
Nanaimo on " Daniel in Babylon," he startled me 
by saying, " Bro. Crosby, you are to be ordained 
next Sabbath in Victoria." 

I went home to the little cabin, but did not sleep 
that night. Next day we were to take the party 
in a large canoe to one of those beautiful islands 
that abound on the coast, for an outing, and there I 
had a chance to talk with the President. I told him 
I had not slept that night, and that I did not wish 
to be ordained. 

When pressed for my reasons, I told him, in the 
first place, that I had hoped to go to college for a 
time, as the brethren had agreed, and in the second 
place, I wished to pay a visit to mother and friends 
at home; and furthermore, I did not feel myself to 

193 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

be good enough to take such solemn vows, and 
would prefer to continue as a lay worker. 

" Well," said the good man, " I am pleased, 
brother, to hear you speak so frankly. Now, as to 
your going to college, I can appreciate your feel- 
ings, and we would like to see it, if it could be. 
But if you should go for one year you would want 
to go for four, and many of these poor souls will 
be gone by that time. You have the language of 
this people, which is more than a college can do for 
you, and we believe it better that you should go on 
in your effort to save and help them. We will 
see that you get a chance to go home; and as to 
your feeling an unfitness, that might be one of our 
strongest reasons for urging you on to ordination. 
You had better leave the matter to God and His 
Church." I had no more to say. 

Next Sabbath came, and the old Pandora Street 
Church was crowded to the doors with an enthusi- 
astic audience, who listened attentively to a mar- 
vellous sermon by Dr. Punshon from the text, " And 
ye shall receive power." At the close I experienced 
one of the most solemn moments of my life, when 
in the presence of the large audience I stood alone 
and gave myself in solemn vow to God and His 
work, and was ordained by the laying on of hands 
of the gifted President of the Conference and other 
ministers. This was in April, 1871. 



194 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY* 

" As laborers in Thy vineyard 
Still faithful may we be, 
Content to bear the burden 
Of every day for Thee. 
We ask no other wages, 

When Thou shalt call us home, 
But to have shared the travail 
Which makes Thy kingdom come." 

— Monsel. 

Under instructions from the District Meeting, in 
October, 1872, I left by steamer Onward for a 
journey to the vast interior, parts of which had never 
been visited by a Methodist missionary. Along the 
Thompson River and through the Nicola valley 
were large bands of Indians, mostly heathen, who, 
while speaking a different language, were neverthe- 
less of the same stock as those among whom I had so 
long labored. 

I took with me, as interpreter, a young man, a 
native of the Thompson, who had lived on the Chilli- 
wack since he was a boy, and hence spoke the An-ko- 
me-num language as well as his native tongue. We 
were each provided with a little Indian " cayuse " or 
pony, which we shipped by steamer as far as Yale. 
In two weeks and three days we travelled 482 miles, 

*The Bunch Grass Country was named from a very 
nutritious grass abounding in that section, which grows in 
tufts, and on which cattle live and thrive all winter. 

195 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

preaching twelve times in English and fifteen times 
to Indians. The kindness of the people and their 
eagerness to hear the truth were remarkable. One 
Indian chief and some of his friends followed us 
fifteen miles to hear me preach again. We preached 
in court-houses, hotels, stores, log cabins, Indian 
shacks, and by the wayside, and everywhere the 
people " heard us gladly." 

At Yale I met Sandford Fleming, Principal 
Grant and their party, just newly arrived from 
their arduous overland trip across the continent. 
The story of this trip is found in Principal Grant's 
famous book, " Ocean to Ocean." 

The journey up the old historic Cariboo road was 
exciting and romantic. We had several narrow 
escapes from having our horses go over the bluffs. 
Had they gone over they must have fallen in some 
places a thousand feet or more into the rushing 
waters of the Fraser River below. The road hugged 
the precipice, and in many places was not wide 
enough to permit two waggons to pass. The great 
stage coaches, which used to convey passengers to 
and fro over the 400 miles into Cariboo, would rush 
by with break-neck speed, while our little ponies 
stood aside on rocky ledges to permit them to pass. 
Here and there we met the large ox teams, of five or 
six yokes, returning with empty waggons from fhe 
interior, their huge flapping canvas covers frighten- 
ing our little animals until it seemed as if we should 
not be able to get them by. 

The first Sunday I preached in the Court House 
at Lytton to a mixed crowd of white men and 

196 



THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY 

Indians. The latter seemed eager to hear the truth, 
and right gladly did I tell them of Jesus. 

At Cook's Ferry, near the outlet of Nicola valley, 
we found the paymaster of the C.P.R. survey, a kind 
gentleman and an acquaintance of mine from Vic- 
toria, who called out and asked me to take dinner 
with him. After our horses were attended to, I 
gladly joined my friend. Passing through the bar- 
room, where crowds of men sat gambling, with 
whiskey barrels for their tables, I said, " Gentlemen, 
as soon as I am through dinner I would like to 
preach to you." 

" All right, parson, we'll be ready and glad to 
come," they replied. 

Dinner over, I walked out, when the men cleared 
away their cards and set an empty barrel at one end 
of the room for a pulpit, where I preached to them. 
I was greatly blessed in delivering my message, and 
as soon as I had finished they came forward and left 
their collection of bills and silver on top of the 
barrel. 

" The Genuine Article." 

Next morning we rode to what was called Oregon 
Jack's, some fourteen miles distant, a wayside inn 
on the road to Cariboo. We tied our horses to the 
post outside, and, as we walked in, the man behind 
his little bar said : 

" Good morning. Bishop, you'll take a glass of 
brandy, won't you ?" 

' No, thank you ; I don't take anything stronger 
than milk or tea," I replied. 
13 197 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" You don't?" said he, with an oath. " You are 
the first parson who has come to these regions that 
didn't take his bitters." 

Ignoring his remarks, which I took for what they 
were worth, I said to him, " I will have my horses 
taken in and fed, if you will." 

" All right. Take the Bishop's horses and fix 
them," he called out to a little fellow named Jim. 

Dinner was soon ready, and my Indian and I sat 
down, one at each end of the little table, and Oregon 
Jack sat about midway on the side. While we en- 
joyed the bacon and beans, he kept up a running fire 
of questions. 

" By the way, Bishop, I know you. You are the 
man that set the country on fire down there some 
time ago." 

" Country on fire?" We had great bush fires on 
the Lower Fraser in those days, and thousands of 
acres of magnificent timber were destroyed, and I 
thought Jack was about to fix one of those fires on 
me. " I set no country on fire," I said. " What do 
you mean?" 

" Oh, I mean what you Methodists call a revival. 
You had a revival in Chilliwack not long ago; we 
heard all about it. The young fellow who was at the 
telegraph line used to be blessing the Lord every 
night that such a sinner was converted, and told us 
all the news along the line about your revival." 

" By the way," he continued, " is that old fellow 

that had a bald head, who used to swear so that we 

thought the heavens would come down on us when 

he drove his ox team up here, has he got it?" 

198 



THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY 

" Yes," I replied, " he is converted, and very 
happy." 

" You don't mean to say so!" said he. " Does it 
stick?" 

" Yes," said I. 

" Well, that other fellow who stuttered so that he 
could hardly get it out, has he got what you call 
religion?" 

" Yes, he is very happy." 

" And how does he tell it?" 

" Why, strange to say," I remarked, " when he 
tells his experience in class-meeting, or prays, he 
never stutters a bit." 

At that Jack opened his eyes wide, and with an 
even more pronounced and deliberate drawl and 
nasal twang, he said : 

" You don't mean to say so ! Why, now that must 
be the genuine article." 

By this time Jim, the little Scotch hostler, who 
had stood in the doorway an attentive listener to the 
conversation, was moved by the story, and began to 
brush the tears from his eyes. 

Dinner being over, I said to Jack, " Now, after 
partaking of this good dinner I would like to pray 
to God, from whom all blessings come." 

" Certainly," he said; " you will pray, your rever- 
ence." And he knelt down with the rest of us. 

As soon as prayer was over he shouted out 
" Amen !" as if he had been a clerk in a church, and 
then jumping up, said : 

" Now, you will have a glass of brandy, Bishop, 

won't you ?" 

199 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" No, thank you !" I replied ; " I will have to be 
going now." 

When we went to get our horses we found they 
had about a peck of hard barley in the trough. The 
little fellows did not know what it was, and it was 
well that they did not eat it. 

When we had got started the little Scotchman 
who had helped with them shouted after us and 
waved his hand. I turned back, when he handed me 
a five-dollar bill, saying he was sure I needed some 
money, and he wished it was ten. 

Who knows but some memory of early boyhood 
days had been awakened in his heart which would 
lead him back again to the God of his fathers? It 
is thus our bread is cast upon the waters to be 
gathered after many days. 

The Fruit of Missions. 

I had hoped to spend the next night at the home 

of my friend S , but next day I met him and 

others going to the Ashcroft races. He expressed 
his regret at not being home to receive me, but 
begged me to stay at his place that night. 

I preached at Cache Creek, and arrived at my 
friend's ranch about evening. His Chinese servant 
met us, and I said to him : 

" John, I met your master to-day, and he told me 
to stay here all night. You are to feed my horses, 
and I am to stay here until morning." 

He seemed doubtful as to my honesty, and in a 

somewhat peremptory tone of voice said, " You 

savee Mr. S -? You savee Mr. S ?" 

200 



THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY 

" Yes," I said, " and he told me to stop here to- 
night." 

" You savee Mr. S ? You savee Mr. S ?" 

he repeated, each time growing louder and more 
emphatic. 

" Yes," I replied, in a strong and decided voice, 

" I know Mr. S , your master, and I want you 

to get my supper, for I am going to remain here 
to-night." 

Finally convinced, he took the horses and put 
them in the stable, and returning to the house, very 
soon had a fine supper for us, of boiled chicken and 
other delicacies. 

After supper I said to him, " John, do you know 
Jesus ? Have you ever heard about Jesus ?" 

" Me savee little bit," he said. 

" Then let us pray to God, who has given us all 
this good food and all good things," said I. 

We knelt down; I prayed, and my Indian friend 
prayed in his own language; then, to our surprise, 
" John," the Chinaman, at once began to pray in 
Chinese, and, as I should think from the earnestness 
of his utterances, made a marvellous prayer. Under 
the blessed influence of grace we had a shouting, 
happy time. 

As soon as we got through, John looked at me 
very earnestly, and, in an excited tone of voice, said, 
" Me savee Mr. Piercy, Canton, China, allee same 
you. Canton, China, one man, allee same you. Mr. 
Piercy, tell me about Jesus. Mr. Piercy, Canton, 
China, allee same you." And as he spoke he grew 
more excited with his effort to convey to me the fact 

201 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

that in Canton, his native city in China, he had been 
led to know Jesus through the instrumentality of 
Mr. Piercy, a missionary like myself. 

Suddenly it dawned upon me that the Mr. Piercy 
referred to was the same George Piercy who, many 
years before, had left my native village in England 
and had gone as a missionary to China. His con- 
secrated devotion had left a deep impression on my 
boyish mind, and I had ever since held him in the 
highest esteem as a missionary of the Cross. 

How little we know of the far-reaching character 
of our influence. Here in the interior of British 
Columbia, thousands of miles from the scene of his 
labors, I met the gracious results of the work of this 
saintly servant of Christ. 

" And they shall come from the east and from 
the west and from the north and from the south, and 
shall sit down in the Kingdom of God." 

A Service at Kamloops. 

Next day we continued our journey, by way of 
Savano's Ferry, on the north side of the lake, visit- 
ing and preaching until about opposite Kamloops, 
where we had to swim our horses to reach the other 
side. 

On the bank of the river I met two old friends, 
members of Parliament, who invited me to take din- 
ner with them. I told them that I would gladly 
.accept their invitation as soon as I had stabled my 
horses and had found out where I was to preach 
that night. 

Kamloops was then a very small place. I met 

202 



THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY 

with a Mr. McKenzie, a local store-keeper, who said 
I might preach in his kitchen. I then went back to 
the restaurant to take dinner with my friends. After 
a good repast I walked to the billiard room and 
called out: 

" Gentlemen, we are going to have preaching in 
Mr. McKenzie's kitchen at eight o'clock, and I want 
you all to come." 

" All right, we'll be there, parson," they answered. 

A lively chap, with a big overcoat on, followed me 
out of the door. He was about three sheets in the 
wind, and was trying to put a bottle of whiskey into 
his big outside pocket as he staggered along, the 
whiskey bottle slipping past his pocket every time he 
tried. 

" I know — (hie) — who you are. (hie) You are a 
Methodist parson (hie) I can tell by the cut of your 
jib," said he, in a maudlin voice. 

" You have struck it. Who are you?" I replied. 

" My name is Bill H ," said he. 

" You sinner, you ought to be away home with 
your family. I visited them to-day, and they are ex- 
pecting you." 

" You're right, I ought," he replied. 

Having called at other places, we were soon at 
Mr. McKenzie's house, and I said to my drunken 
companion, " This is the place for preaching." 

" I will go to church with you," said he, and 

staggered in. Some man pulled his coat tail, as he 

was going to the front of the room, and bade him 

sit down. 

There were about twenty intelligent looking men 

203 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

in the congregation. After the sermon, which was 
listened to with respectful attention, I began to give 
out that beautiful hymn : 

" Praise ye the Lord, 'tis good to raise 
Your hearts and voices in His praise." 

when Bill jumped up and, with an oath on his lips, 
said, 

" I'll give this parson five dollars ; how much will 
you give, Jack?" 

They said, " Sit down, you fool, the parson is not 
through yet," and pulled him down by the tail of his 
coat. 

Just as the service closed, another man jumped up, 

took his hat, knocking in the crown, and said, 

' Now, Bill, where is your five dollars? Down with 

your dust, every one of you, and let us give this 

parson a good send-off." 

A few minutes after, the storekeeper came with 
his two hands full of bills and silver, and handed it 
to " the parson " as the collection, while another 
man seized the bottle of whiskey out of Bill's pocket 
and said, " Look here, parson, this is the fellow that 
was so anxious to give you a collection, and see what 
he had in his pocket." 

Bill turned around, and declared by all that made 
him that it was not his bottle, but that the other man 
had put it in his pocket. The collection was $22.50, 
a token of the hearty generosity of those rough- 
mannered but large-hearted men of the West, who 
respected religion though they were not in the en- 
joyment of it themselves. 

204 



THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY 

In the Nicola Valley. 

Next morning we were off down the Nicola 
valley, through a most beautiful country. I 
preached to the Indians and settlers that night, and 
next day met a band of Indians with their chief, and 
preached Christ to them while sitting on horseback. 
They seemed delighted to hear the story of love, and 
for years they kept up the request that we send them 
a teacher. 

With the visit to Nicola our missionary tour was 
at an end, and we made our way home again as 
quickly as possible. In all we had travelled nearly 
500 miles, at an expense of $59.50, and without 
asking anyone for a cent, we had met the expense, 
and had fifty cents to the good. 

My report to the Chairman of District recom- 
mended the establishing of a mission both among the 
white settlers of the Nicola valley and the Indians 
of that district. Shortly afterwards a missionary 
was sent to the settlers of the Nicola, but though the 
poor natives made fervent appeals for help, next to 
nothing has been done for them. 

On my return my soul was stirred within me by 
the news that my dear friend and son in the Gospel, 
David Sallosalton, had during my absence taken ill 
and passed away to the better land. During his last 
moments he had asked for me repeatedly, and ex- 
pressed the wish that he might see me before he went 
to heaven. We were not to meet here again, but 
some day we shall greet each other where they never 
say good-bye. 

205 



CHAPTER XIX. 
MARVELS OF GRACE. 

" Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their might ; 

Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; 

Thou in the darkness drear their one true Light. 

Hallelujah!" 

— W. W. How. 

Among the crowning glories of all missionary 
endeavor are the living and dying testimonies of 
men and women who have been reclaimed from vice 
and heathenism by the power of Divine grace. 

Among the An-ko-me-nums were many who wit- 
nessed a good confession and passed triumphantly 
home ; too many, indeed, for any extended reference 
within the limits of one short chapter. 

There are some, however, whose character and 
service caused them to stand forth as mountain 
peaks, to whom we must refer. Among these were 
Amos Cushan, our first convert and native mission- 
ary ; David Sallosalton, " the Boy Missionary," and 
Amos Shee-at-ston, our first class-leader among the 
Songees; old Captain Tsit-see-mit-ston, of Sumas 
Lake, Snak-wee-multh, Thit-sa-mut, Shee-ah-tluk, 
August Jackson, and several others. 

Amos Cushan. 

Kook-shin (or Kicking-foot) was our first con- 
vert to Christianity, and for many years a most 
valuable assistant in the work among his people. 

206 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

He was a youth of some twenty-five years of age 
when first I took up my work at Nanaimo. As a 
lad Kook-shin was trained in heathenism, and later 
when a young man learned to love the white man's 
" fire-water." 

As a servant in the employ of the Hudson's Bay 
Company he had acquired a little knowledge of 
English, and for some time served us in the capacity 
of interpreter. 

His conversion was very clear, and so real to him 
that in after years he always referred to it with 
delight. When the enemy came to tempt him as to 
his conversion, to use his own words, " I pointed 
him to that place in the mission-house garden on 
the spring morning when I was working, where 
God spoke peace to my soul and made me, oh, so 
happy. For a long time before this I had had two 
hearts, but now Jesus became chief in my heart. 
Only one chief now. Jesus is my great Chief." 

When he was baptized he was named " Amos 
Cushan," and almost immediately became a local 
preacher, and to the end of his life was always con- 
cerned for the salvation of his people. 

No one who has not known the awful power of 
the drink habit can fully appreciate the struggle he 
had with this demon. More than once he was over- 
come, but finally he prevailed over his enemy and 
triumphed over every foe. 

As an agent of the Missionary Society he spent 
many years in evangelistic labors among his own 
people on the east coast of Vancouver Island and up 
the Fraser River, and later visited the west coast of 

207 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

the island, the first Protestant missionary to carry 
the Gospel to Alberni and the country of the Ats. 
He made many long and trying trips, preaching in 
the open air and sleeping where he could, which 
finally, after many years of toil, brought on con- 
sumption, to which fell disease he finally succumbed. 
Notwithstanding the fact that he lingered long, and 
the poor body was racked with pain and suffering, 
yet his spirit was always bright ; he was never heard 
tc murmur. ; ' In fact," says one who visited him 
during his last sickness, " it was a great comfort to 
be with him, he was constantly praising God." 

It was Cushan who stood by the missionary in 
the great battle in Qual-la-kup's house, and where, 
it is said, they saved the lives of half-a-dozen people. 
At camp-meetings and on other occasions he often 
preached with great power on the terrors of the law, 
from such texts as, " In hell he lifted up his eyes," 
and " These shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment." He was an earnest advocate of missions, 
and was in demand at the various missionary meet- 
ings held in the district. 

During his last illness a big potlatch was held at 
his native village, which brought many hundreds of 
heathen together. And here he never lost an oppor- 
tunity to urge all to give their hearts to Jesus. Just 
before his death he called all his children to his side, 
bade them good-bye, and urged them to be good and 
serve God. " All, all is peace. Jesus is very 
precious," were among the final words of this 
devoted servant of Jesus Christ. 

He was generally respected, and a large number 

208 




AMOS CUSHAN. 



p. 206 



DAVID SALLOSALTON. 



SARAH SHEE-ATSTON 

p. 229 

CAPTAIN JOHN" SU-A-LIS. 

h r£>7 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

attended his funeral. Some of the hardest hearts 
were softened as he was laid away until the resur- 
rection morn. 

" Servant of God well done, 

Thy glorious warfare's past, 
The battle's fought, the race is won, 
And thou art crowned at last." 

The Boy Preacher. 

I will never forget the bright, pleading little face 
that looked up into mine one sunny morning in the 
year 1864, and prayed to be received into my home 
and heart. 

" My father and mother are bad. They don't 
want me to be good and go to school; they would 
rather have me painted up and tattooed and learn to 
dance and hunt and fight and go in the old way ; but 
I want to do as you say and be good, so I think 
if I live with you I will be good," said the dear boy. 

My missionary heart was touched by his entreaties, 
and David Sallosalton, whose heathen name was 
then Sa-ta-na, was received into the mission house, 
and there trained for the work which in the provi- 
dence of God was to result in so great a harvest for 
the blessed Master. 

He applied himself to learn, and became a devoted 

Christian. On his reception into the church he was 

baptized under the Christian name of David. 

Shortly after he was put on the plan as an exhorter, 

and faithfully and most successfully he assisted in 

the work of the mission. 

For a time he labored in his own native village, 

209 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

and then was appointed as lay helper at Chilliwack. 
Later on he became assistant missionary to the 
Songees Indians at Victoria, under the Chairman, 
Rev. William Pollard. 

He was most enthusiastic in his interest in the 
camp-meetings, which had become such an institu- 
tion in our mission work both among Indians and 
whites. His zeal and devotion and his eloquent and 
fervent appeals contributed in no small measure to 
the success of these gatherings. 

A spirit of utter self-forgetfulness marked the lad. 
Through storm and sunshine he plodded on, daring 
dangers innumerable, and facing death in many 
forms. He was tireless in laboring for the salva- 
tion of his people, going from band to band, and 
seizing every opportunity to preach unto them Jesus. 
Hundreds were impressed by his fervent words, his 
native eloquence, and his pure and Christlike spirit, 
and were led to give themselves to God. 

David became of great value also in interpreting 
for the missionaries who might not know the lan- 
guage of the Indians. He was for a time a class- 
leader at Skowkale, in the Chilliwack Valley, and 
he had another class at the head of Sumas Lake, 
twenty miles away, and a third class at Squi-a-la 
camp, which were the blessed fruit of one of the 
camp-meetings. Probably it was in his work 
through this valley that David contracted the cold 
which was destined to end his earthly career. It 
was often necessary for him to swim rivers and 
ford creeks and sloughs and rushing torrents, in 
order to carry the glad tidings of salvation to his 

210 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

benighted brethren. Once on such a journey he 
nearly lost his life. He was miles away from any 
dwelling, and was attempting to cross a slough at 
the head of Sumas Lake. The ice, being weak, gave 
way, and down he went. 

He says, in telling of his mishap : " I plunged and 
broke the ice again and again as I tried to climb out 
upon it. The water was so cold that I was becoming 
chilled and weak, and I thought, ' Now, David go 
to heaven, and nobody will know where David has 
gone ' ; so I got my Bible with my name in it, and 
threw it right up on the shore, so that I think when 
somebody find it they will say, ' Oh, David has gone 
to heaven on the lake' ; but just then, while among 
the breaking ice, my feet caught on a sand-bar, and 
by this means I struggled to the shore. I found my 
Bible, and went on my way rejoicing again to be. 
allowed to preach to my people." Who will say that 
Providence did not interfere to save one so useful 
and so devoted to the cause of Christ? 

David's preaching was very earnest, very force- 
ful and original, and full of illustrations from 
nature. One of his sermons was called his " Steam- 
boat Whistle Sermon." We had the pleasure of 
hearing this wonderful sermon at one of the Chilli- 
wack camp-meetings, which he delivered in his 
broken English to a crowd of white people gathered 
at the meeting, and which we doubt not was the 
means of leading some to the Saviour. 

A great number of white people and Indians had 
gathered at the camp-meeting. An English service 
was first held, followed bv a service for the Indians. 

211 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Amos Cushan, the old local preacher, who was a 
friend of David's, had preached to them his famous 
sermon on the judgment, when, in response to his 
invitation, the whole congregation rushed forward 
to the rude altar of prayer, and then scores of people 
with one voice sent up their cries and petitions to 
heaven for salvation. After a season of prayer and 
wonderful blessing a change was made in the exer- 
cises. By this time crowds of white people were 
standing round the camp and at the doors of their 
tents, looking on with amazement, and many of 
them with their eyes filled with tears at seeing so 
many of the red men anxious for pardon. David, 
seeing them, seized the opportunity to preach, and 
springing to his feet he began in his broken English 
a marvellous and soul-stirring address to them : 

" My dear white friends," said he, " you look at 
our Indian people here, you hear them cry very 
much, and you say, ' What they make all that noise 
for, what make them feel so bad ?' Well, I tell you. 
My dear people just heard about Jesus now, and 
they all want to find Him and love Him. You heard 
long time ago, some of you; you find Jesus long 
time; you love Him. It all same as steamboat on 
this river." (The camp was on the banks of the old 
Fraser, and many had come by steamer.) " When 
she going to start she whistle one whistle, then she 
whistle another, and if you don't get your things 
very quick and run, she whistles last time " (boats 
whistle three times before leaving), " and she go off 
and leave you behind, and you very sorry because 

you too late. Now Jesus like that. He whistle, He 

212 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

call, He whistle and whistle, and if you don't get 
on board Jesus' salvation ship, you too late. I think 
some my people get on board before some of you, 
because they not afraid to repent and come on 
board. Now, my white friends, you hurry up, have 
all your things packed up, be quick and get on board 
or you be too late. I think some of this poor Indian 
people go into heaven and you left out. Oh, come 
on board quick, come on board, come to Jesus now ! 
This a very good ship, room for all you people, and 
Indian people too, black and white; come now, all 
come." 

No one could help being moved at the speaker's 
strong, earnest appeal, a message from a heart burn- 
ing with love for souls. Oh, how anxious he 
seemed ; how he pleaded for the people to come to 
Jesus; how he sought to show them the need of 
doing so, and of doing it right then. 

We looked around when he had finished and saw 
a number of the most hardened sinners in tears and 
broken down by the earnest, loving, living message 
of the young Indian preacher. Who can measure 
the results of that strong and sympathetic appeal? 
Never can it fade from my memory or its effect be 
effaced from the heart. We feel that the Great 
Shepherd alone can tell how many of His sheep 
were found by the call given in that " Steamboat 
Whistle Sermon " by His young servant on the old 
camp-ground on the banks of the Fraser. One man 
was saved that day who became well known as a 

faithful worker among the Indians in after days. 
14 213 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

This was old Captain Tsit-see-mit-ston, who lived 
at the head of Sumas Lake. . 

David knew nothing of fear in the prosecution of 
his work for the Master. Many a time, in the midst 
of circumstances most trying, would he declare his 
allegiance to Christ. Never was he ashamed of his 
Saviour, and his young heart was so full of love 
for Him that the influence was felt by all who came 
near to his warm and faithful life. Although his 
opportunities were few and his advantages limited, 
owing to a lack of an English education, he was a 
living demonstration of the fact that " God often 
chooses the weak things of the world to confound 
the things that are mighty." 

On one occasion he was accompanying me on a 
missionary trip which included a visit to a sick 
Indian who lived up the Chilliwack River. When 
we arrived at Skowkale, on the east bank of the 
river, a priest came to the opposite side. He seemed 
desirous of crossing the river (it was before the 
river had changed its course at Vedder Crossing), 
and as there was no bridge, and no canoe or boat on 
his side, he called to the Indians on our side to come 
over and fetch him. I told them to go for the man, 
but they said, " Oh, no, we don't want that teacher 
any more." 

" But," said I, " it is only politeness to row the 
man over if he wishes it; you do not need to listen 
to him or follow his teaching, but you ought to be 
kind and help any man when you can." 

At last they were persuaded, and rowed across 

214 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

after the man, bringing him to our side. When the 
priest arrived on the bank of the river I said : 

" Good-morning, sir, you seem to be travelling." 

" Yes," said he, " I am going up to see a sick 
man at the village above." 

"Oh, indeed," said I; " my little friend and I 
were just going to the same place." 

" Then," said the man, in a mixture of French 
and English, " you better not go, he is my convert." 

" Yes," said I, " but I have been to see the sick 
man before, and I thought of going again." 

" Then," said he, " you people are all in the 
wrong way; it is no good you go." 

" Well," said I, " which way are you in? Here 
is my chart," holding up the Bible. At this he got 
angry, and said, " That book is no good." 

All this time David stood quietly by without say- 
ing a word, but when he saw the man getting angry 
he stepped up and said, " Mr. Crosby, I think you 
gentlemen speak too much your own words. Very 
good, I read some out of God's Word." So he read 
some striking verse out of his little Testament. 
This made the priest very angry, and he tried to 
snatch the book out of the boy's hand, saying, " He 
can't read; he is only a little Siwash " (Chinook for 
Indian). " It is only something he had committed 
to memory, the little Siwash." 

" Yes," said David, " that's so ; me little Siwash, 
but this book tell me if I love Jesus and work for 
him, when I die I go up to heaven, and I live with 
Jesus up there. Me little Siwash, but me love 
Jesus; Jesus my friend, Jesus my King; Jesus save 

215 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

me and help me to be good and not get angry. Can- 
not I read?" and taking out his Bible he turned to 
passage after passage, as if God had inspired and 
told him just where to turn the leaves, and read : 

" Therefore, being justified by faith we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
" There is one mediator between God and man, the 
man Christ Jesus." And again, " The blood of 
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 
but he that believeth not shall be damned." And so 
he went on, reading passage after passage, slyly 
hitting, without apparently knowing it, one after 
another of the errors of the priest's own Church, 
until the countenance of the latter was a study. It 
changed to purple, and from purple to livid, in a 
very short time, until his indignation mastered him, 
and he made off up the river bank; not, however, 
before our young Indian, turning over the leaves of 
his Bible, repeated, very significantly, the passage, 
" The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the 
righteous are bold as a lion." This courageous 
action on the part of David fired the zeal and 
enthusiasm of all the Indians, and gathering 
together they commenced to sing a part of one of 
Wesley's hymns, which they had learned at the 
camp: 

" Jesus, the name high over all, 
In hell or earth or sky; 
Angels and men before it fall, 
And devils fear and fly." 

And just as the priest, with the wind blowing 

216 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

strongly against him, hurried rapidly up the bank 
of the river, with his long coat-tails flying in the 
breeze, the last line of the verse was ringing out on 
the air, which is a translation from the Indian lan- 
guage in which it was sung, " The devil gets afraid 
and runs." 

We are informed by a lady who often entercained 
Sallosalton that one day he was going to visit the 
Indians who lived across the Chilliwack River. 
Having arrived at the bank of the river he saw an 
Indian on the other side, and called to him to come 
across and row him over with his canoe. The man, 
being a Roman Catholic, refused to do so, so David 
took off his clothes, tied them in a bundle, placed the 
bundle on the top of his head, plunged into the river 
and was soon on the other shore. He then dressed 
himself, and went on his way rejoicing that he was 
able to carry the blessed light to his heathen people. 
Nothing could daunt our young hero, nothing dis- 
courage his young heart. He was wholly given up 
to his work for the Master. 

On the occasion of one of his visits to the head of 
Sumas Lake he met a white man whom he had 
known in Nanaimo. This man was one who had 
known the grace of God but had wandered from the 
fold, and he thought to cause David some discom- 
fort by his talk. 

' David," said he, " what are you doing here, so 
far away from your home? We don't see you in 
Nanaimo any more. What's the matter with you?" 

' Nothing," said David, " I am simply preaching 
to my people." 

217 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

" Oh, you're preaching, are you? Preaching for 
the Methodists, I suppose ? How much do they pay 
you? You know some of these preachers get good 
pay; how much do you get?" 

" Oh," said David, " you think me work for noth- 
ing? You think me get no pay? By-and-bye me get 
great pay. Me get great crown up in heaven. Jesus 
pay me. Me be a king up there. Oh, yes, me get 
pay by-and-bye, me get great pay." This set this 
poor old backslider thinking, and we hope it was 
the means of leading him back to Jesus Christ, from 
whom, by his worldliness and selling of whiskey, he 
had wandered so far. David was not in the least 
disturbed by the man's remarks, but marched on, 
singing, " There is a happy land, far, far away." 

None could have a higher motive than this for 
his life's work. To David in all his work came the 
glorious hope of the heavenly welcome, which, 
beaming brightly on his earthly way, chased away 
many shadows that might otherwise have lingered 
there. Sunshine and joy seemed ever present with 
him, and made him a most desirable companion, 
while his deep religious convictions gave the influ- 
ence of holy thought and motive as an additional 
ciaim to the fellowship which others were privileged 
to have with him. 

The Rev. Morley Punshon, D.D., before the 
British Conference of 1873, gave a good description 
of this incident, and of Sallosalton's work. He says, 
in speaking of him : 

" In British Columbia I met an Indian, one 

of the most eloquent men I ever heard. If I had 

218 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

not met Sciarelli (a Hindu), I should have said he 
is the most eloquent man who ever stood before an 
audience. He was only seventeen years of age, but 
a youth of very great promise, who rejoiced our 
heart with the prospect of long-continued useful- 
ness, but whom God loved so much that He took 
him out of the world after a short time of most 
earnest and successful labor upon the Fraser River. 
This young man, David Sallosalton, wrought a 
great work among his countrymen." 

The End Came All Too Soon. 

At the last camp-meeting David attended he was 
feeling quite poorly. For some time he had been 
sick, for the hard trips he had taken through storm 
and tempest were having serious effects upon his 
frail constitution, and yet his zeal had brought him, 
even under distressing difficulties, to his last camp- 
meeting. He had fought hard for the Master dur- 
ing these years, and now he was seen to be breaking 
clown in health. One arm had been rendered 
powerless by a stroke of paralysis. At this camp- 
meeting of which we have spoken David, as usual, 
seized an opportunity to tell his experience. A 
great crowd of Indians and white people were 
standing near, and David said : 

" My friends, you see that little tree," pointing to 

a little maple standing near by. " Well, when I first 

came to camp long ago that tree was a very small 

tree ; now you see how it has grown ; it is a strong 

tree now. It is all the same with David's heart, it 

grow every day, it get strong like the tree, but the 

219 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

devil he try me when I come to this camp-meeting; 
he say, ' Now, look, you foolish boy, you go among 
these Indians, you preach and travel around in ice 
and cold, and do what the missionary want you to 
do, and you get sick, and be no great man. Now, 
if you had not done that, if you had stayed 
home among your people, you had been a chief, a 
great man, by this time. Now you go away from 
your people, you preach; you say your people 
wrong, your people all dark ; and now the old medi- 
cine men on the Fraser River not like you preach 
so strong, and they make you sick and poor like 
you be now.' But I tell the devil, 'You go away; 
Jesus is my Captain, He lead me all right; by-and- 
bye I not be sick any more ; by-and-bye I be in heaven 
with Jesus; no witch-doctors do me any harm.'' 
Thus he went on addressing the people, and the 
power of the blessed Spirit seemed to accompany 
his words in great measure, and his face shone as 
with a light from heaven, and he said, " Oh, my 
friends, me think by-and-bye me not sick; by-and>- 
bye me get to heaven ; no sickness up in heaven." Up 
went both arms, one of which, through his paralysis, 
he had not used for a long time, and he shouted 
out with all his strength, " By-and-bye I shall have 
wings ; I shall fly !" There were shouts of " Praise 
the Lord," and " Hallelujah," all over the camp, 
and many of the people shed tears of joy. All were 
touched and deeply moved at this wondrously pas- 
sionate appeal, and this bright hope for the future, 
as also the miraculous movement of David's para- 
lyzed arm. No doubt of his fitness for the glory 

220 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

land, or his bright prospects of reaching it. Indeed, 
he seemed to all to be living just on the border. The 
camp-meeting broke up under a holy influence, for 
one and all felt the power of one who was soon to 
bid farewell to earth and pass over into the king- 
dom eternal. After this camp-meeting was over 
David spent some days visiting his friends in the 
Chilli wack valley, where he was always welcome, 
and whose homes he brightened and blessed by his 
happy experience. Then he returned to Victoria, 
where he was employed as a native assistant. He 
gradually grew worse, getting weaker all the time, 
and finally his spirit fled to the heaven to which he 
had tried to point the way. 

The Chairman, the now sainted Win. Pollard, was 
his superintendent, and watched over him to the 
last. He said David's death was the most trium- 
phant he had ever witnessed. In a letter dated 
January 14th, 1873, he said: "The death of David 
Sallosalton was a sad blow to this mission and to 
the Indian work in general. He was deservedly 
popular, and he was pious, eloquent and useful. He 
was universally beloved and almost idolized by the 
Indians." 

The late Rev. Cornelius Bryant, then missionary 
at Sumas, who had known David from his child- 
hood, in referring to his death, paid this tribute to 
the worth of Indian Missions : "'If no other had 
been saved than David Sallosalton, our Indian 
brother, whose glowing experience I heard in the 
church a few months ago, and who is doubtless now 

221 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

a glorified inhabitant of the skies, we had been well 
rewarded for all missionary effort." 

Mr. Pollard wrote the following obituary of him : 
" The subject of this notice belonged to the 
Nanaimo tribe of Indians, and he was born in 
Nanaimo camp about 1853. His parents were 
pagan, and David's early education was pagan. 
About i860 our missionaries visited Nanaimo, and 
the Gospel was introduced among the Indians; this 
was a new era in David's history. He when a little 
boy welcomed the messengers of mercy, and as far 
as he could comprehend the light he walked in it, 
but it was not until he was eleven years of age that 
he was converted. He attended the mission school 
then conducted by the Rev. T. Crosby, and was 
the fruit of his pious and earnest ministrations. 
This zealous missionary discovered in his pupil 
piety and gifts of more than ordinary promise, and 
spared no pains to train him to future usefulness. 
David from the time of his conversion maintained 
an unblemished character, and labored earnestly and 
continuously to teach his countrymen the way of 
life. In September, 1S71, he came to Victoria to 
attend the English school and act as assistant mis- 
sionary to the Songees Indians. He made great 
progress in his work, often preaching to them every 
evening in the week, besides twice on the Sabbath, 
and the Lord gave him great favor with both the 
whites and the Indians. Great hopes were enter- 
tained that he might long be spared as a missionary 
to his people. He was not only remarkable for his 

piety, but had extraordinary natural qualifications 

222 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

for public speaking in his own language. The Rev. 
Dr. Punshon, who heard him when on a visit to 
this country, pronounced him one of the greatest 
natural orators he had ever heard. Last spring his 
health began to fail, and though everything was 
done to prolong his valuable life, yet it was evident 
that consumption was undermining his constitution. 
The only desire that he seemed to have was to live 
that he might preach Christ. During his illness he 
often spoke of heaven, especially as a place where 
there would be no temptation, no whiskey, no devil. 
Shortly before his death, when asked what portion 
of Scripture he wished to have read, he said : ' Read 
to me the death of Christ.' A few minutes before 
he died a friend quoted the first part of the four- 
teenth chapter of John. He expressed great joy 
that Christ had gone to heaven to prepare mansions 
for his children, and said : ' In a very short time I 
shall be in my Father's house.' He then closed his 
eyes, folded his hands, as if intending to pray, and 
thus fell asleep without a pain or a doubt, on the 
29th of October, in the nineteenth year of his age, 
David Sallosalton, the most perfect Christian we 
ever knew." 

The Old Captain of Sumas Lake. 

Tsit-see-mit-ston, the old warrior chief of the 
Sumas, whose home was at Nah-nates, round the 
head of Sumas Lake, was a convert of our first 
camp-meeting at Chilli wack in 1870. I remember 
well the tall, rather fierce-looking man, who 
impressed one by his stalwart, athletic form and 

223 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

proud bearing that he might have been a great hun- 
ter and a fierce fighter in his day. We learned 
afterwards that he had been in many terrible scenes 
of bloodshed. Years gone by, when the Coast 
Indians came up the Fraser River on their slave- 
taking expeditions, many a slave-seeker found his 
death at the hands of this stalwart warrior. He 
had a powerful frame and unflinching nerve, and 
was alert and agile to the very end. 

His curiosity was aroused when he heard the 
people were camping in the bush, and so he, with 
some of his people, came to attend the camp-meet- 
ing. As the blessed Spirit came in power upon the 
Indians in that place, " Old Cap." (as he was called 
by the whites) said: "I felt so miserable I did not 
know what to do ; and when asked to speak my body 
trembled and shook. It was not fear, for I had 
never been afraid of anything. But what could I 
say? I could not utter a word. And when the 
good people saw how I was, they commenced to 
pray for me, and led me to the foot of the cross, 
where I laid down my burden of sin, and God gave 
me a new heart. * My difficulty in speaking was soon 
gone, and I felt that I wanted to talk all the time 
in telling of the joy that had come into my soul." 

The great old warrior would shout and talk, and 
seemed never to tire of telling of the love of God 
in his soul. He became a missionary to his own 
people, and by precept and example pointed them 
to the Saviour of men. He had the unspeakable joy 
of seeing every adult member of his band make 
public profession of conversion ere he passed to the 

224 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

land of light and glory. We often stayed all night 
at his camp, and night and morning he would call 
all his people in to prayers, and it was then we had 
times of refreshing coming from the Lord. 

The old man was wonderfully energetic, and in 
order to have all his people at church on Sunday — 
for they had to journey a distance of fifteen miles 
or more — he bought a number more horses, so 
that he might have one each for them to ride. 
These horses he kept on the prairie during the sum- 
mer, and in the fall he had a lot of his young men 
cut enough wild hay to keep them through the win- 
ter. It was remarked again and again that no mat- 
ter how stormy the day, " Old Captain " and his 
people would be seen at church. 

Finally age told upon him, and one day he " fell 
on sleep," and died happy in the Lord. Years have 
gone by since he passed away, and we still see the 
effect of his life upon his people. What a change the 
Gospel makes from a savage to a saint. 

The Redeemed Slave. 

Snak-wee-multh, or Old Sam, was a native of 
Vancouver Island, though in his boyhood he had 
been seized in one of the many slave raids and car- 
ried away to the far north, where he remained for 
years, until he had forgotten his own language, but 
never lost his love or longing for the old home of 
his youth. Long after middle life he found his way 
back to his own tribe, but never recovered the fluent 
use of his own tongue. 

In youth he was trained in heathenism, and after- 

226 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

wards acquired a knowledge of the still more savage 
customs and heathen practices of the north people. 
He was first in all dark deeds and in the heathen 
dance among his people; and as he had many new 
tricks of savage life to show them, which he had 
learned while a slave, the dancers looked upon him 
as a kind of demi-god, for, as they said, " he had 
so much power, he could do more wonderful feats 
than any one of them." 

Sam kept on this way until he became very sick, 
and as he lay on his sick bed I visited him, and had 
the joy of pointing him to Jesus. 

During this sickness he several times begged me 
to give him some medicine to make him sleep. He 
said he wanted it so strong that he would not wake 
up again. He said he had heard the white man had 
this medicine, and if he could only take some it 
would be so good of me to give it to him. Again 
and again did he beg for a sleeping-powder. 

I told him I could not give him that kind of medi- 
cine, but if he would only give his heart to Jesus 
he would then be happy all the time. I kept up my 
visits regularly, carrying him simple foods from 
day to day. Finally the light came in upon his dark 
mind, and oh, what a change! How he would 
thank me and praise God for the comfort he had 
in his heart! 

For years he had been very fond of tobacco, and, 
like most of the Indians, had used so much of it that 
no one could come near him without noticing the 
dreadful effects of it. Everything seemed to be 
saturated with the smell of tobacco, and he would 

226 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

use it the last thing before going to bed and the 
first thing in the morning. After he was converted 
he had a dream. He dreamed that One grand and 
pure sat by his side and said, " You would have 
been lost if it had not been for your wife " — she 
had helped him to the light — and the pure One went 
on to say, " You will have to stop the use of tobacco, 
for if you get up to the shining gate, and the great 
and pure One smells any tobacco on you, He will 
send you away, as no one can go into that happy 
place who smells of that stuff ; it is not so much dif- 
ferent to rum and whiskey, so stop it or else you will 
be lost." 

Poor Sam had a great struggle, but he got the 
victory. And finally, after months of sickness, 
when he was sinking rapidly, he told us that " with 
a clean mouth, and not with the smell of dirty 
tobacco, he was going home to heaven, washed in 
the blood of the Lamb, and had no doubt of a wel- 
come in the skies." 

And so, from that heathen house, with an earthen 
floor, a poor cot, and heathen surroundings, the 
scene of many a weird heathen dance and much 
bloodshed, Old Sam passed away to the mansions 
above. Oh, the power of the blood of Jesus! A 
slave, a poor dark pagan, saved — a saint, a king ! 

An Indian Class-Leader. 

Shee-at-ston was a native of the Songees tribe 
of Indians, who lived opposite the City of Victoria, 
B.C. He was born about the year 1855. He was a 
high caste Indian, in the line of succession from 

227 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Chee-at-luk (old King Free-zee), the hereditary 
chief of that district. 

In his early life he was doubtless introduced to 
all the abominations of paganism, and was, when I 
first knew him, still carrying out the practices of a 
real heathen life. He, with others of his people, 
had become victims of the white man's fire-water, 
being so close to a town where so many were ruined 
by it. 

He must have long desired a better life, for on 
several occasions he found his way into the old 
Pandora Street Methodist Church, Victoria, and 
was asked by the kind usher to take a seat. About 
this time the attention of a number of Christian 
workers of that church had been directed to the 
depraved condition of the Indians, not only at their 
camps, but of the numbers who were wandering 
about the towns in dissipation and shame, and they 
were moved to take up work among the Songees 
people. 

Shee-at-ston was one of the first to come to the 
little Sunday-school which these Christians were 
conducting. There he heard the word of life, and 
after awhile gave his heart to God and was bap- 
tized, " Amos Shee-at-ston." 

As soon as he became a Christian he built him- 
self a neat little house, and moved out of the old 
lodge with its associations of heathenism. Some 
fourteen of the Songees Indians were converted and 
formed into a class, which met in Amos's house, and 
of which he became the leader. 

His conversion to God created great excitement 

228 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

and aroused a good deal of persecution from his 
heathen people. Many a time evilly disposed ones, 
who may have been put up to it by wicked white 
men, would bring their bottle of the accursed fire- 
water to tempt him again to drink, but by the grace 
of God he was kept faithful. 

Amos was a great help to the workers after they 
hired the old bar-room in town for evangelistic 
purposes. He was always in his place at the time of 
religious service, and ready to give his testimony to 
the power of grace, either in the Chinook or in his 
own language. Thus saved from heathenism and a 
life of degradation and drunkenness, he was the 
means of helping many of his friends to the true 
light. His wife became converted, and her sister as 
well. They afterwards lived happy Christian lives, 
and then went triumphantly home to the skies. The 
wife of Amos was christened " Sarah." 

When the summons came to devoted Amos Shee- 
at-ston, though sudden, he was ready to obey the 
call. That terrible disease, the smallpox, had spread 
among his friends in the " rancheree," and finally 
seized our faithful and devoted class-leader, and in 
a short time he exchanged the garments of earth 
for the robes of heaven. 



How gladly would we make extended reference 

to many others who witnessed a good confession 

and went triumphantly home, but our space will not 

permit. There was true-hearted Charley Thit-sa- 

mut, the chief who succeeded " Old Captain " at 

Sumas Lake, who for twenty years lived such a 
15 229 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

faithful life that whites and Indians alike bore testi- 
mony to his worth of character; and "Big Jim" 
Shee-ah-tluk, of Squi-a-la, who also was one of the 
converts of our first camp-meeting, an earnest- 
hearted Christian, who always delighted to have 
the missionary come to his house, and was ever 
ready in the olden times to ferry the preacher across 
slough or river in his canoe; and Chief Dick, of 
Achelitz, quiet, conscientious and devoted ; and 
Thomas Sallosalton, the brother of David, who lived 
a happy life among his own people till God said, 
" Come up higher " ; and his sweet-spirited sister, 
Mrs. Sunneah, who, when she was passing over the 
river, called her friends to see the white-winged 
angels who had come to take her home. 

Then there was August Jackson, of our Victoria 
Mission, who was converted to God in his youth 
and became a most devoted assistant to the mission- 
ary. Besides his work in the church, lie was a coun- 
cil-man in the Songees tribe, and much respected by 
all who knew him. I know Brother Tate hoped he 
would be called into the work as an agent of the 
church. He married a bright girl from Coqualeetza 
Institute, at Chilliwack, and all seemed to promise 
fair, when, by an accident in the saw-mill in which 
he worked, he received a wound from which he 
never recovered. He died July, 1903, at the early 
age of thirty-three years. Bro. Tate, his pastor, 
speaking of him, said, " He was, without doubt, one 
of the best men I ever knew." 

And, finally, we must mention poor old Annie 

Lay-why-eton, who died of smallpox after success- 

230 



MARVELS OF GRACE 

fully nursing her son through that awful disease. 
She was a sincere member of the Church for many 
years, and in her eagerness to hear the Word used 
to trudge in feebleness from Kultus Lake, on the 
Upper Chilliwack, to the church at Skowkale, a dis- 
tance of about five miles, and back. She was blind, 
and had to cross the river on a single log. The 
very last time she attended church she spoke at the 
class-meeting, and told how she thought that morn- 
ing she could not get to church, but she felt such 
a longing desire to have her soul fed once more that 
she made the attempt. Coming to the log she 
feared she could not get across, but looking up to 
God for help, she got down on her hands and knees 
and crawled over. What a rebuke to the careless 
indifference of many professed Christians to the 
privileges of religious worship. 

We rejoice as well in the faith and devotion of 
many who are still with us, among whom are Capt. 
John Sua-lis, who for thirty-five years or more 
has been our faithful native assistant at Chilliwack, 
and Chief Wm. Sapass, our devoted class-leader at 
Skowkale. When the " roll is called up yonder," 
we are persuaded many will answer to their names 
who went up to the glory-land from the various 
bands and tribes of the An-ko-me-num people. 

Before leaving Chilliwack and Sumas, the kind 

friends of that valley gathered to bid farewell, and 

presented me with the following address, which I 

have treasured in loving memory of the precious 

years spent with them and among the Indians of the 

Fraser River. I insert this letter because I believe 

231 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

my readers will sympathize with me in my declara- 
tion of the exceeding comfort and encouragement 
which it gave me in the prosecution of the work to 
which I had devoted my life. 

SUMAS AND CHILLIWACK, 

September 22nd, 1873. 
To Rev. Thos. Crosby, — 

We wish to take the opportunity of your leaving 
this district for Ontario to express our hearty 
admiration of the untiring efforts you have put 
forth in the work of evangelizing the natives of this 
land, a work in which you have been eminently 
blessed by God. But as you have materially helped 
the work of God amongst our own race by preach- 
ing to the scattered settlers in various parts of this 
province, and especially so on this mission, which 
you were mainly instrumental in founding, we beg 
to assure you of our sincere sympathy and love as 
you leave us on a visit to the mother churches of 
old Canada, and to your friends and relatives living 
there. At' the same time we tender you the accom- 
panying purse as a small expression of our affec- 
tionate regard, hoping that after you have fully 
accomplished your mission East we shall have the 
pleasure of welcoming your return. We subscribe 
ourselves, on the part of the lay-official members 
and friends of the Wesleyan Methodist Church on 
this mission, 

D. McGillivary. A. C. Wells. 

Geo. W. Chadsey. D. W. Miller. 

Isaac Kipp. 
232 




SKOWKALE CHURCH. 




SKOWKALE MISSION PEOPLE 



CHAPTER XX. 

LAY AGENCIES— SALVATION IN A 
VICTORIA BAR-ROOM. 

" Work for the good that is nighest, 
Dream not of greatness afar ; 
That glory is ever the highest 

Which shines upon men as they are." 

— W . Morley Punshon. 

It was in the fall of '69 that a few Christian 
friends in the City of Victoria undertook the organ- 
ization of a Sunday-school and other services 
among the Indians who lived in and about the city, 
as well as the Songees people on the reservation 
opposite. In February of the following year, Amos 
Sa-hat-son, a Songees chief, and two others of the 
same tribe, experienced the converting grace of God 
through the instrumentality of these services. 

In many cases it was native or lay agents who 
first commenced practical mission work and so pre- 
pared the way for the regular missionary. The 
efforts of our brethren and sisters in the various 
centres where the Indians congregated is worthy of 
all praise. It is my joy to speak kind words of ap- 
preciation of the help given by Brothers Bryant, Ray- 
bold, Raper, Brinn, Tate, Green, and others in 
Nanaimo; by Father McKay, Sister Russ, Brothers 
J. Bullan, J. E. McMillan, and others in Victoria. 

At New Westminster, too, Brothers Dawson, D. S. 

233 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

Curtis, R. Wintemute, and other young men, 
assisted by the pastor's wife (Mrs. A. E. Russ), 
held meetings and carried on a Sunday-school on 
behalf of the hundreds of Indians who lived near that 
point. After the revival referred to at Chilliwack, 
Brothers A. C. Wells and J. Whitfield commenced a 
Sunday-school at Atchelitz, and carried it on suc- 
cessfully. 

These Sunday-schools and locally conducted ser- 
vices were a great blessing, not only to the natives, 
for whose benefit they were held, but also to the 
teachers themselves. There is nothing like some 
form of Christian activity to keep the spiritual life 
strong and healthy. 

As we look about us on the many lines of mission- 
ary need — Chinese, Japanese, Hindu and Indian — 
we cannot help feeling that our young people and 
Leaguers are missing an opportunity, which God has 
placed at their door, if they do not endeavor to reach 
out for these " strangers within our gates." An 
opportunity, too, which, if made use of, brings its 
own reward — the joy of unselfish and successful 
service on behalf of others. 

In all our mission fields we should make a more 

general use of the talents of our native converts. 

What matter if they are not educated. When their 

hearts are filled with love and zeal get them to work 

— as class-leaders, exhorters, local preachers, visiting 

the sick, in evangelistic efforts of every kind — and 

out of a full, happy heart they will tell, as did the 

early Methodists, what the Saviour has done for 

them, and what He will do for others. When Amos 

234 



SALVATION IN A VICTORIA BAR-ROOM 

Cushan, our first native preacher at Nanaimo, went 
out he could not read, but he could tell of the disease 
and the cure. When Sallosalton commenced his 
work on the Coast the people marvelled and asked, 
" Where did he get this wisdom ?" Unsaved, hard- 
ened men melted before his burning words and 
loving heart, and his Christian friends were led to 
rejoice as they listened to him. Many others of our 
native brethren, like Capt. John Sua-lis and August 
Jackson, have been mightily used of God in spread- 
ing the Gospel among their people. 

Salvation in a Bar-room. 

The services at Victoria were first held on the 
reservation, and then transferred to a building in the 
city which had been used as a bar-room. In this 
building, still bearing the sign of its earlier occu- 
pancy, a work of saving grace was begun and carried 
on, the results of which eternity alone will reveal. It 
was a service held in this " old bar-room " which 
was instrumental in opening the way for the Method- 
ist Church to enter those great fields among the 
Indians of the North — Tsimpsheans, Kit-eks-yens, 
and Hydahs on Queen Charlotte Islands, Hylt- 
chuks and the Kling-gets in Alaska, and others — 
where, in the providence of God, I was afterwards to 
labor. 

On a Sabbath morning in October, '72, Elizabeth 

Deex, a chieftess of the Tsimpshean nation, who had 

left her home at Port Simpson, wandered into the 

" old bar-room," and there by the preaching of the 

Word was brought under deep conviction for sin. 

235 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

At a prayer-meeting held later in her own house she 
was savingly converted to God, and immediately 
entered into the work of bringing others to Christ. 

That meeting proved to be the beginning of a re- 
vival which lasted continuously for nine weeks and 
resulted in the conversion of upwards of forty 
natives, among whom were a number of northern 
people. 

It was our great privilege to be with the dear 
friends for some time in that blessed revival, and 
when the people were starting north we bade them 
good-bye, urging them to stand up as witnesses for 
Jesus, and promising them that, if possible, we 
would visit them some day. 

This was in the month of September, 1873, when, 
by a strange providence, the way was opened for a 
visit to my friends at home. And now as they 
started northward I started eastward, little imagin- 
ing that I should so soon follow them to their 
northern home, and remain with them so long — for 
about the next quarter of a century, indeed. 



236 



CHAPTER XXI. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA— ITS INTERESTS 
AND RESOURCES. 

" ' Rejoice with trembling,' may we think of this, 

When life's full cup is with Thy bounty crowned, 

That so we be not blinded by our bliss, 

Or fall asleep upon ' enchanted ground.' " 

— Barton. 

It seems appropriate, in closing this record of my 
first twelve years of missionary labor, that something 
should be said concerning the progress made in the 
Indian work in British Columbia, as well as in the 
settlement and development of this one-time colony, 
but now the richest and most wonderful province, 
from the standpoint of natural resources and mar- 
vellous possibilities, in the Dominion of Canada. 

It is only a short time since British Columbia was 
described as " a sea of mountains," uninhabited and 
uninhabitable except at long distances ; covered with 
forests, a great part of which were inaccessible; its 
rivers filled with fish, and its river beds streaked 
with gold. 

The marvellous resources of the country were little 
dreamed of by Canadians — as the inhabitants of On- 
tario and Quebec were alone called — when I reached 
home on this first visit. Speaking to large audiences 
in the leading cities and towns in the East, of the 
great cedars and firs, which attain immense propor- 
tions, " sometimes towering three hundred feet in 

237 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

the air, and having a base circumference of from 
thirty to fifty feet " — of whole forests of these mag- 
nificent trees that would average one hundred and 
fifty feet clear of limbs, and five to six feet in dia- 
meter — the people appeared incredulous. And when 
I turned to the subject of fish and told them I had 
seen in a small stream flowing into the Fraser River 
the large salmon so numerous that in forcing their 
way up the stream they had rubbed off their fins and 
tails, my audience looked at one another. When I 
went on and told them of having seen a wave come 
in at Departure Bay, on the east coast of Vancouver 
Island, and deposit bushels of herring on the shore, 
the preachers on the platform pulled my coat and 
said, " Oh, Crosby, that is an awful fish story!" But 
when I went on and spoke of crossing a little stream 
in the upper Chilliwack Valley, and of my little pony 
stepping on some of the beautiful silver salmon that 
lay thick in the stream, and that they jumped about 
so violently as to nearly knock the animal off his 
feet, the people laughed outright, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" 
and I knew they did not believe me. 

To-day, however, the eyes of the financial world 
are turned towards the profitable investments in 
British Columbia. An ever-increasing number of 
companies are establishing great saw-mills, and ship- 
ping lumber to all parts of the world. Whereas 
once the Indian bands alone congregated at the 
mouths of the great rivers during the fishing season, 
to gather for their own consumption, now scores of 
large and magnificently equipped canneries, employ- 
ing large numbers of men, line the river banks, and 

238 



BRITISH COLUMBIA'S RESOURCES 

are engaged in packing salmon of different varieties 
as well as other kinds of fish. The mountains in all 
directions are being prospected for minerals, and 
fresh discoveries are being made almost every day. 
Agriculture has advanced with the general advance- 
ment of the country, and it is now known that there 
are millions of acres of land suitable for cultiva- 
tion which have not yet been settled upon. In the 
raising of fruit, particularly, the opportunity is 
almost unlimited, and some day the hillsides and 
benches which were thought to be worthless will be 
planted with orchards. In a recent interview, the 
Hon. R. G. Tatlow, Minister of Finance in the local 
Government, a gentleman of wide experience and of 
twenty-six years' residence in the province, expressed 
himself as follows : 

" I am satisfied that every industry in British 
Columbia is only in its infancy. We have forests 
illimitable for lumber, land in millions of acres for 
agriculture, and the seven thousand miles of shore 
line are washed by seas teeming with fish. 

" The total production of the province for the year 
ending June, 1906, was over $50,000,000. 

" Details of this production should be of public in- 
terest. Taking, first, the lumber industry, the value 
of the lumber cut reached over $6,500,000. The 
mineral output of the province was $22,461,325, 
with eleven smelters in operation. Agriculture also 
advanced in common with other lines of work dur- 
ing the year. The product of provincial farms and 
orchards reached the sum of $6,500,000. 

" There are splendid opportunities for mixed 

239 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

farming in many sections of the province. The best 
evidence of this is the fact that we exported butter, 
eggs, poultry and cheese to the value of nearly 
$2,000,000. 

" Horticulture is rapidly coming to the front. It 
is becoming one of our most important industries. 
In 1 89 1 the acreage under fruit was 6,500; ten 
years later it had only reached 7,500, but advance- 
ment has since been phenomenal. A year ago there 
were 22,000 acres cultivated by orchardists and 
fruit-growers, and I fully believe that by the end of 
1906 there will be 40,000 acres used in this manner. 

" Fishing, of course, has long been an important 
item in the commerce of the province, but even this 
industry shows signs of great expansion. The total 
values from our fisheries amounted to $7,500,000. 

' When one considers these facts, can there be the 
slightest doubt that the present prosperity will be 
maintained ?" 

The future for British Columbia looks very bright, 
with four transcontinental railways seeking entrance 
through her unopened valleys and stretches of up- 
land to ports on her magnificent shore line ; with a 
climate unexcelled for variety, from the clear, brac- 
ing, dry climate of the interior to the mild, humid 
climate of the coast ; with her abundant resources of 
timber, minerals, fish, farm and orchard ; with the 
ever-widening market of the Orient, as well as in the 
great North- West Provinces, for her products, she 
must speedily take her place as the imperial province 
of our great Dominion. 



240 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE MISSIONARY PROGRESS OF THE 
YEARS— HOME AGAIN. 

" For the road leads home, 

Sweet, sweet home ! 

Oh, who would mind the journey, 

When the road leads home?" 

— /. M. Gray. 

It is less than a short lifetime since, in the year 
1864, we received into church membership, at our 
Nanaimo Mission, Kook-shin (Kicking Foot) and 
his wife — our first Indian converts. Since then 
thousands have heard the Gospel, vast numbers of 
whom have received the truth, and many have lived 
devoted lives for years, while some have passed 
away, leaving a bright testimony of a blessed hope 
of everlasting life. 

Many hundreds still live, and prove by their sin- 
cerity and devotion, and the zeal with which some of 
them endeavor to bring others into the light, the 
reality of their Christian profession. 

A glance at their villages will show the change 
which has taken place, for there is a marked contrast 
between the old heathen lodges and their new and 
neat Christian homes. 

In 1872-3 we reported 108 Indian members in 

British Columbia, of whom 18 were at Victoria, 36 

at Nanaimo, 4 at New Westminster and 50 at Chilli- 

wack. To-day we have, in our Indian work, 32 

241 



AMONG THE AN-KO-ME-NUMS 

churches, 24 mission houses, 12 schools and 4 hos- 
pitals. There are 43 workers in the field, evangelists, 
doctors, nurses, teachers and other agents; and 1,645 
members, among some six different nations, speak- 
ing numerous dialects. The total missionary givings 
of these recent converts from heathenism and their 
workers amounted in 1905-6 to $1,245.60. Out of a 
total Indian population of 25,000 in British Colum- 
bia, we are teaching by the Word about 7,000 
people. 

What has been accomplished is nothing to what 
might have been accomplished had the Church 
always been alive to its duty and privilege, and 
made haste to enter every open door. 

To-day there is urgent need for more laborers in 
this department of missionary effort. Shall we listen 
to every other call, and close our ears to the cry of 
our Indian brothers and sisters, who appeal to us in 
the name of a common Saviour to help them into a 
noble Christian manhood and womanhood? Shall 
we? 



A few closing personal references will be per- 
mitted. I have written of my promised furlough, 
and of the road leading me to " Home, sweet 
home." Those who have spent years away from 
home and loved ones will understand the joy with 
which, after the twelve years of toils and triumphs 
which I have striven to describe, I once more turned 
my face to the East. I well knew the greetings 
which awaited me. But I found more than my 

beloved mother and brothers and sisters on my 

242 



HOME AGAIN 

return to Ontario. It was during this visit, in the 
early months of 1874, that I found the faithful wife 
who did not hesitate to turn her back upon home 
and friends and the comfortable conditions to which 
she had been accustomed, and undertake with me 
the hardships and privations of a pioneer mission- 
ary life among the benighted Tsimpshean and other 
tribes of the far northern regions of our Pacific 
coast. She is the youngest daughter of the late 
Rev. John Douse, formerly a well-known figure in 
Canadian Methodism, and who, more than twenty 
years ago, went to his reward in the better land. 
During the next twenty-five years, in which I 
labored among the Indians, with headquarters at 
Port Simpson, she was a self-denying sharer in the 
toils and discouragements and the loneliness of that 
protracted period of missionary effort, and a 
delighted witness of the triumphs of the Gospel, 
as these poor benighted peoples gradually emerged 
from the darkness of heathenism and became 
sharers in the blessings of civilization and Christian 
hope. Of these trials and triumphs, and the won- 
derful experiences connected with that marvellous 
work, I hope to have the privilege of writing in 
another book. 



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